


Seven Days to Home

by allisbuttoys



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, References to Norse Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 23:27:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20629292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allisbuttoys/pseuds/allisbuttoys
Summary: What exactly do you do when you meet the man of your dreams only to realise that he’s related to your roommate’s boyfriend and lives half a world away? Probably the same thing as when you can’t stop thinking about the loud girl with blue eyes who buys you tea and makes fun of your name. (Alternate universe, all-mortal)





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Of all the Gin Joints

Darcy

Oh, you could move in with me, Darcy! I mean, we’re such good friends and I have the apartment all to myself. It’ll be great, you’ll see.

Darcy Lewis snorted to herself, recalling that particular conversation with Jane at the start of the year. At the time her main concern had been the repercussions for her friend (and college researcher) if the administration department found out that she was subletting half her apartment to a student, even if that student was from a completely different department. As it was…

She looked around the crowded bar. She could feel a headache coming on and if one more loser offered to buy her a drink she might have to accept his offer just so she would have something to throw over him for starting at the not-unimpressive protrusions she desperately tried to hide beneath her too-large hoody. The way some of the older guys in here stared at them would make you think she was wearing a bikini for crying out loud.

And to think, she thought with another derisive snort, she had picked this little hole-in-the-wall bar to try and escape the sort of just-post-adolescent male behaviour. She had enough of that to deal with at college surrounded by guys that sort of behaviour was expected from, not middle age greasy bastards who should really make it less obvious that they were married before they started hitting on you. That’s right boys, Darcy thought as she glared at one of the more insistent buggers, I have eyes and you have a wedding ring on your left hand. Work it out, genius.

It wasn’t that she was feeling particularly antisocial. Hell, she would love some company. It was starting to seem, however, that the kooky Irish pub she had come to had just the same amount of douchebags as the college bars she tried to avoid for that very reason. She wanted someone who talked to her face, not her breasts. And every single loser in this joint seemed to have had a go in the last hour.

Except the dark haired guy in the corner, she noted with interest. She hadn’t noticed him before and he could very well have arrived after her as she had been sat at the bar (slowly finishing her one and only pint of the black stuff and taking out her Jane-based frustrations on those damn green pigs on her ridiculously overpriced by oh-so-necessary cell) but he was definitely the only man in the place who was yet to be an asshole to her. Well, expect the bartender, a rather buff blonde that everyone seemed to know as Steve. How he ever became a bar tender in the first place was beyond her, he kinda reminded her of a Boy Scout, very all-American good looks and…

But she was digressing. The man in the corner seemed to be a very different sort of specimen than everyone’s-best-friend-Steve. He was dressed a bit more formally than most of the rest of the assembled customers, black dress pants, a blue dress shirt and shiny black leather shoes that probably cost more than Darcy’s whole wardrobe put together. But he had slung his jacket over the back of the armchair he occupied and his shirt was unbuttoned at his throat. Maybe he had come here from work, she mused.

He was sitting alone below one of the fake wall torches. Darcy refused to call them scones, scone were yummy treats not lights. Or was that sconces? Irrelevant, Darcy, she told herself.

The light of the whatever-they-were-called was clearly insufficient and between its dull glow and the black strands of hair falling into his eyes Darcy had yet to get a good look at the man’s face. His body was beyond nice, however. He was sitting down, of course, but she could see that he was having trouble fitting all of his tall frame into the tiny, overstuffed chair. He was thin, not lanky but not built either.

She suddenly felt a slight twinge of guilt at staring at the unsuspecting stranger. After all, hadn’t she just been moaning to herself about men doing the same to her? She glanced about to see if Mr Tall-Dark-and-(possibly)-Handsome was with anyone. No one apart from her seemed to acknowledge his presence, however, and there was no other drink on the low table in front of him. He was, in fact, even more antisocial than she had been, reading a leather bound book by the light coming off the torch. He held it in one hand while his other was wrapped around his drink, half balanced on his folded legs. And he was drinking tea… in a pub. How strange.

Darcy shrugged internally, she was the one who had been sitting alone at the bar cackling to herself. She might even have threatened one guy with painful dismemberment when he had refused to leave her alone. It would be nice to have a conversation, she thought, with someone who hadn’t yet destroyed forever any indication that he was, or ever could be, a gentleman. Cause there are so many of those in this town, she thought bitterly. In fact, she thought as she waved over Steve-the-Scout-boy-bar-tender and ordered another two of whatever sort of tea Mr Dark-and-Quiet was drinking, she had yet to meet one.

She took the pot and a new mug for herself before she walked over and (not) gracefully plopped down into the armchair opposite Dark-Haired-Loner.

Her first thought was simply, wow.

Then her brain caught up with her eyes.

He had an interesting face. Not classically handsome by any stretch of the imagination. His lips were a little too thin and too pale… Hell, his whole complexion was too pale, especially in the orange light of the weird torchy-thing. Then again it probably didn’t make her look so hot either. Anyway…

His nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and healed a long time ago but she found it softened the otherwise quite sharp lines of his face. She looked again and found that maybe the sharp lines weren’t such a bad thing, they seemed to suit him somehow. Maybe because he was so tall?

His jaw was angular and his chin narrow and it drew her attention down to the base of his throat. Whatever the reason he had left those few buttons out, she was inordinately thankful. The small dip was weirdly appealing to her. His skin was like smooth, white marble.

But it was his eyes that caught the attention of her own.

They were ridiculously green, Darcy thought. Like, beyond green. Emerald? Forest green? It didn’t matter, they were… 

When she sat down he had looked up with such a startled expression that, in her quest to end her boredom with someone who hadn’t yet proven themselves to be a complete douchebag and after allowing herself at least five seconds to check out Mr-Tall-Dark-and-definitely-(handsome wasn’t the right word, it didn’t suit him)-Attractive, Darcy realised that she never considered the idea that he might not want to be disturbed.

‘I, uh, thought you might like more tea?’ She knew it sounded more like a question. The only response she got was a partially raised eyebrow and questioning look. ‘So, I brought tea,’ she tried again, ‘I mean, I assume that’s what you’re drinking. Although I wouldn’t be opposed to an injection of something a bit stronger. Not that I’m an alcoholic… there’s nothing wrong with that if you are, I’m just…’ She sighed, take three. ‘Hi,’ she offered, setting the pot of tea down on the low table between them and sticking out her now free hand, ‘I’m Darcy. And I will take absolutely no offense if you tell me to take my tea and “sod off”.’ She knew her attempt at the British accent was horrible but what made it even worse was when he opened his mouth to reply and she realised…

‘Oh, so you do speak the Queen’s English. You talk so quickly that I wasn’t sure exactly what language you were attempting.’

Damn, he was British.

That smirk, though, she thought, watching as one side of his not-so-thin looking lips curved up and his eyes narrowed just slightly. Damn, that smirk was all sorts of mischievous and (dare she even think it) sexy.

She smiled sheepishly, aware that he was mocking her but that some form of response was probably appropriate. After all, he had made a good point. ‘Yeah, sorry about that, you know the bit of your brain that allows you to process thoughts before you speak? I think mine was either defective from birth or maybe just completely absent. And that was a case in point. You still haven’t told me your name, you know.’

His smile widened and there was more than a hint of mischief behind it. ‘Oh, have I not?’

Dammit, he was going to make her ask, and then she was going to sound no better than those sleezeballs who kept trying to start conversations with her at the bar. Except that she wasn’t staring at his chest. Though now she thought about it he had a really nice jaw…

He wanted her to ask, so she let it slide. ‘So, tea?’

‘Yes, thank you.’ She lifted the teapot and he extended his mug to her. ‘So, Darcy, do you often approach strange men in bars with pots of tea?’

That strange, half-mocking tone was still present in his voice but it didn’t put her off. Quite the opposite, it made Darcy want to sass back, just to see his reaction. ‘No, just the dark-haired British ones reading… Myths and Legends of Northern and Central Europe? You brought that to a bar?’

She was still staring at the spine in mystification when he laughed. The sound was not altogether unpleasant. ‘I thought it would be better than sitting in my brother’s apartment reading it alone. Besides, he didn’t have any tea, the heathen.’

Speaking of tea, Darcy remembered her own mug and took a sip. ‘Dude,’ she said nearly spitting it back out, ‘that is vile.’

‘That,’ her newly acquired companion informed her, ‘is Earl Grey.’ She didn’t care if it was King Grey and when she told him so he had the audacity to chuckle. ‘More for me, then. Unless I should be concerned that you spiked it with some dangerous substance between the bar and the table. But at least I would die with a good book in one hand and decent tea in the other.’

It was Darcy’s turn to laugh. ‘So what brings you out in search of “decent tea”, then?’

His brow furrowed slightly and only for a moment. ‘My brother invited me over on holiday to meet his girlfriend. I arrived this afternoon to find out that he was staying at said girlfriend’s tonight. I suppose I can’t blame him but a little warning might have been nice. I didn’t plan on spending the first night of my holidays reading alone in his flat.’

‘So you decided to spend it reading alone in a bar?’ She asked with a clear tone of dude-who-are-you.

His lips twitched as he smirked. ‘No, I thought I would wait to see how long it would take before the pretty American at the bar would get bored with the attentions of the other customers.’

She smirked right back, ‘I’m not sure, but Steve seems to be a decent guy, you could probably just ask him.’

The skin around his eyes crinkled just slightly when he smiled. Laugh lines, she remembered her grandmother calling them.

‘So, what brings you out to this fine establishment, Miss Darcy?’

For a moment she wondered if he got a kick out of mocking the origin of her name. She almost wanted to ask him to start calling her Georgiana but refrained. She could have lied about why she left her apartment that evening but, as usual, her brain filter didn’t engage in time. In any case, she had never seen the point in lying and she had a distinct feeling that (in the unlikely case that she ever did) this man would somehow be able to tell.

‘My roommate’s boyfriend is staying over. And, trust me, you do not want to be in the vicinity when it all kicks off. Hopefully they’ll have fallen asleep by the time I get home. And not on the couch again, cause that was disturbing last time. I really didn’t need to see his hairy ass. Not that it’s not nice, he’s a fairly good looking guy if you go for the over-muscled body-builder type, but he would do with waxing… Anyway, I guess it would be easier to just lock myself in my room, I even bought noise cancelling headphones but they were crap so I’ve resorted to making myself scarce for a couple of hours whenever I know he’s staying over. It’s totally unfair, I moved into that apartment before they started dating and I’m the one who had to leave unless I want to listen to them getting their freak on? Classy, real classy.’

Mr Green-Eyed-Brit was looking at her as if he didn’t quite know what to make of her. And for the life of her Darcy didn’t know why she kept rambling, she just did. ‘So yeah, here I am, sitting in dinky pubs and waiting for random Englishmen to buy disgusting tea for just to gain some human interaction that extends beyond having to try and tune out the grunts from beyond my bedroom wall.’ For some reason she felt she had to qualify that statement a little, ‘I’m only joking, though, about the waiting for Englishmen thing. It’s not like I sit here and wait for men wearing tweed and smelling like Brut to walk through the door. You definitely don’t fit either of those categories, by the way. Usually I just sit at the bar and play Angry Birds. I just…’ she trailed off a little, ‘I dunno, I wanted some company and you seemed like the only guy in here with the potential to hold a conversation with my face and not my chest so...’

Why, oh why did she say that? To his credit, though, English-and-Increasingly-Interesting neither made any sign of disgust nor (more importantly) did his gaze slide away from her eyes.

‘And what would you have done had I not been here?’ He asked with a roguish grin.

She shrugged, trying to get over the embarrassment of mentioning her rack to the stranger with the killer smile and an apparent weakness for Earl Grey. ‘Probably left, wandered the streets for a while before going back to my place.’

‘Hopefully to find your roommate and her partner asleep, in her bedroom, I gather?’ His smile should be illegal, Darcy thought. She wasn’t quite sure if, coupled with his dry wit and slightly mocking tone, she wanted to punch him or…

‘Or’, her traitorous brain supplied, defiantly ‘or’.

His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘I don’t think I like the idea of you wandering the city on your own at night, though.’ He continued, oblivious to her internal musings. ‘Especially not just to avoid this infamous boyfriend of your roommate. Does they not care that they’re forcing you out of your home?’

She shrugged again, it seemed to be a recurring gesture. ‘I’m a big girl. When I first met the “infamous boyfriend” I knocked him out with a taser. Granted, it was before Jane introduced us and there was just this random guy standing in the middle of my kitchen eating chips but still…’

He was laughing openly now and his face was a little speculative. ‘Your roommate’s name is Jane?’

‘Yeah, why?’

He chuckled, ‘I believe our problems are one in the same, Darcy. This boyfriend, he wouldn’t happen to have a ridiculously pompous, over the top, yet highly appropriate name, would he?’

She considered for a second how his lopsided smirk drew attention to the clean lines of his jaw and cheekbones. And then she snapped herself out of it, quickly. ‘Let’s take this from the top, I’m Darcy, and you are?’ Though she had a horrible feeling that she knew the answer.

His smile seemed just a touch less mocking a more genuine as he answered her. ‘Pleased to make your acquaintance, Darcy. My name is Loki Odinson.’


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – She Is

Loki

Loki didn’t really know what to make of this strange girl. She had settled herself into the seat opposite him, offered him tea and launched into a conversation that he had to imagine most people would have trouble following. He had teased her about it and she blushed, sticking her hand out and introducing herself properly.

Darcy, he thought, what an unusual name. Not that he was able to talk, of course. There was, however, something about it that suited her. She seemed to be a most unusual girl. She had prattled on a mile a minute and, even though her chain of thought seemed scattered, he was able to follow her logic and her meaning. Even when she had brought up her anger about the men in the establishment objectifying her. Of course, she hadn’t couched it in those terms exactly. Straight and to the point. And it had taken all of his self-control not to look at said objects when she mentioned them. He had been raised better than that but she was the one who had…

And then she had let slip a little piece of information about her roommate and Loki had started putting the pieces together.

‘Odinson?’ She said, her big blue eyes widening further than he would have imagined possible. ‘Dude, please tell me you’re joking.’

He laughed again. ‘I’m afraid not, but don’t worry, I’m sure my brother would love to hear about your appreciation for his naked posterior.’

As he watched her smile a little nervously, missing all of the ease of demeanour that he had experience so far in their conversation Loki was almost certain that she was giving herself a good rollicking in her own mind for even having this conversation with him and he felt suddenly guilty for making her worry.

‘Don’t worry, Darcy,’ he said in what he hoped was a more gentle tone, ‘I won’t tell if you won’t.’

She looked up at him from under her dark eyelashes and smiled another little nervous smile. ‘Good, because if you did I’d have to get you back. And I don’t have my taser on me, at the moment anyway.’

She was a pretty little thing, Loki had realised that from the second he saw her. Bright blue eyes, big brown curls and a ready smile. She was quite petite too, he doubted the top of her head would even reach his chin but her height was not the reason she attracted so much attention.

Put simply she was gorgeous but she was shy of the attentions of men such as those he had heard approach her earlier in the evening. He hadn’t even looked up from his book at first, simply frowning at the lack of manners displayed by some of the members of his sex. It was after the third accidentally overheard proposition that he eventually looked up, unable to ignore it any longer. If these men were hassling some poor woman he was going to do something about it. Until he saw her.

Her face was contorted in pure rage and, setting her near empty glass on the bar, he watched as she spoke in a voice to quiet for him to hear. The effect on the skinhead wearing the football shirt (and leaning much too close to her) was instantaneous. His eyes widened almost comically and he walked away from her with his hands clasped protectively in front of him. While Loki was sure that she hadn’t touched him it made him wonder exactly how creative she had been in her threats to elicit such a reaction of fear from a man who looked to be at least twice her size.

He had wanted to introduce himself, suddenly curious about the anomaly that was this girl. He could see plainly that she tried to hide her figure. The jeans she wore were far from clinging to her legs and the plain blue jumper that she was using as camouflage was several sizes too big. He wouldn’t even have been surprised if it was a man’s article of clothing. And yet, from the way he saw her interact with the bartender and the manner in which she dispatched her last ‘admirer’ it hardly seemed that she was shy by nature. What had stopped him approaching her was his worry that she would simply think he was like all the other men who had approached her.

But it was she who had come to him. With tea. What a strange, curious girl.

And then he had discovered that they would have met anyway, with his brother spending so much time at her ‘apartment’ (as she called it) it was almost inevitable. If he believed in fate Loki would have laughed at the idea. As it was, he shrugged it off as coincidence.

He vaguely recalled that she had been threatening him with mild electrocution and felt that a response was probably both expected and appropriate. ‘Well then, I would have to be a gentleman and wait until you were sufficiently armed and ready.’

Her laugh was spectacular. Not like the little giggling titters of the women he worked with but rich and full of real mirth. He amused her, he noted with some amusement himself at finding the feeling entirely mutual.

‘So Thor really is your brother? How weird. “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world” and all that.’ And now she was quoting lines from classic movies.

‘I think the more appropriate quote would be “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”,’ Loki answered with a smirk and watched with something akin to glee as her mouth dropped open.

‘This is going to sound so random but has anyone ever told you you’re kind of awesome?’ She was practically vibrating in her seat.

Loki really didn’t remember the last time he had smiled this much during one conversation. ‘Not for a while, but it’s always nice to hear.’

Apparently the wheels in her head were turning again. ‘So, Loki, huh? Did your parents have a thing for Norse names? Or is a mythology thing? Cause I’ve looked up some stuff on Thor and wow were those people crazy. I mean, Thor just uses him name for innuendo, mainly. God of Thunder and all. He gets good mileage out of that one, especially on me. Cause, you know, I complain about them being loud and stuff. But doesn’t naming your kid that sort of scar them for life? I mean, c’mon, I’ve had to live with Darcy and that’s bad enough but being named after the God of Mischief and Lies? That’s rough dude.’

That was a little too much information about his brother’s sex life for Loki’s comfort. He didn’t comment, however, simply shrugged and (as he nearly sloshed it over himself) realised that he should really be drinking his tea. ‘I suppose you could look at it that way. Then again, I have made a career out of it.’

She looked confused now, ‘What? Mischief and Lies? What do you do, pull rabbits out of hats at kids’ parties? Or do you run some sort of commercial pranking business? You know, plastic wrap on toilet seats, shoe polish on telescopes. No one appreciates the good ones these days. Now it’s all electronic whoopee cushions and… I’m going off on one aren’t I? Feel free to stop me when I do that.’

Loki didn’t really want to tell her that he found her little rants absolutely fascinating. Instead, he opted to tell her what he really did for a living. ‘Actually, I’m a doctor of Early European History and Society at the University of Bath.’ Her mouth dropped open again, ‘Surprised?’ It had been a long time since Loki had really been able to surprise anyone. And with Darcy he had succeeded twice in only a few minutes. It was a pleasant feeling, to not be as predictable as he often felt.

‘Yeah, I mean no. I mean… you look a lot younger than all the teachers I have at college. But doctor of History? Wow. That’s… impressive.’

‘I’m thirty one but thank you.’ He wished he could ignore the nagging voice in his head that said that gentlemen shouldn’t ask ladies their age. But he couldn’t, so he settled for fishing. ‘It’s not that old, really.’

‘No, it’s not,’ she agreed, her willingness to babble serving him well as she added, ‘but then again Jane had the audacity to announce at my birthday that twenty-one was the new fifty and I was properly middle aged now.’

So she was quite a bit younger than him. Not that it really mattered. That would only be a consideration if they were going to embark on something that was more than simply a casual acquaintance, or maybe even friendship. No, her age did not matter.

‘Is that the reason for the book then?’ she asked. ‘Trying to squeeze a bit of work in before you meet Jane?’

He had given up any hope of actually reading any more of the book several minutes ago but Loki had forgotten that he was still holding it in one hand. He chuckled to himself and marked his place before setting it down on the table. ‘Yes, I suppose. It’s more for my own interest though. After all, it was that interest that got me into the field.’

‘So, you’re saying that your name led you to your career, mapped out your whole life for you?’ She looked genuinely curious but Loki was getting uncomfortable with the subject for reasons that he didn’t wish to discuss. Darcy just continued, however, apparently oblivious to his discomfort. ‘‘Cause I kind of get that, you know? A literature student with the name Darcy, most of my professors think I changed it when I went to college. But no, my mom just had an unhealthy obsession with Colin Firth.’

Despite his rapidly fraying nerves Loki laughed at that. ‘So you study literature? How interesting.’

Darcy shrugged. ‘Well, not for much longer. I only have a few days left to go and then I have to find a real job. If I don’t get the doctorate scholarship I applied for, I’m still living in hope.’

So she was not only quick witted and funny, Loki thought, she was intelligent too. It had been hinted at with the speed her mind worked but if she was applying for a doctorate then she must be beyond average intelligence.

‘How did you end up living with an astrophysicist?’ He asked, genuinely curious about her links to Jane Foster.

Darcy rolled her eyes. ‘I do some casual work for Jane and her boss Erik, collating and proofreading lab reports that sort of thing. It’s good money and we got along well. So, this year when it came to applying for a dorm Jane persuaded me to move in with her instead. It made sense at the time, I paid her rent and we got along well. Then she met the blond behemoth… crap, Thor,’ Loki smiled, ‘and, well, you’ve heard the rest.’

‘Hmm,’ he said, finishing the rest of his tea. ‘Well, I would imagine they would be asleep by now,’ he noted glancing at his watch, ‘would you mind if I walked you home?’

He saw the shock on her face before she managed to recover. ‘Really, I can take care of myself.’

‘Oh, I have no doubt,’ he said, trying to placate her. He wasn’t trying to be a misogynist, her really wasn’t. But something didn’t sit comfortably with him about letting her walk home alone, in the dark, after being approached by and rejecting so many (for want of a better word) dodgy looking men this evening. ‘But I enjoy your company, Darcy. And I don’t think I ever thanked you for the tea.’

‘You still haven’t,’ she pointed out with a smirk.

‘No,’ he smirked back, ‘so I suppose you will just have to let me walk with you until I do.’

She agreed laughingly and Loki was glad that she wasn’t offended by his attempts to be chivalrous. He knew that she didn’t live far from here, although he wasn’t sure exactly where, but Thor had walked over from his flat to Jane’s. Had he arranged for his rental car to be picked up this evening he would have given Darcy a lift but he had assumed that his brother would meet him from the airport. He knew his smile had tightened slightly at the thought. Yet another slight but one that he may be willing to write off as a consequence of his brother being newly infatuated with Jane Foster.

So walking it would have to be, he thought as he shrugged on his jacket. Darcy had gone to return the teapot to the bar and he vaguely noticed her stuffing her hands in her pockets when she returned.

He let Darcy lead as he followed her through the town’s winding streets. She chattered as she walked, pointing out different buildings and providing him with anecdotes. His favourite was her memory of Thor being propositioned by a very flamboyant man in one of the bars she pointed to. Apparently Jane had been horrified but Darcy was chuckling to herself as they walked side by side, recounting the tale.

‘I really wish I had thought to take pictures,’ she said, ‘I mightn’t have been his type, but damn that was a good looking man.’

They had reached her building now, and Loki watched as she fumbled with her keys.

‘Thank you for the tea, Darcy,’ he whispered quietly as she turned the key in the door.

Her answering smile was brilliant and she pulled a plastic bag out of her jacket pocket. ‘I asked Steve to bag some of it up for me, so now you won’t have to drink your brother’s supposedly mediocre drinks.’ He stared at her in a kind of astonishment as she finally managed to get the door open. ‘I guess I’ll be seeing you at some stage over the next few days.’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I would imagine so.’

‘Goodnight, Loki,’ she said as she turned to go in, turning back with a wide smile and a laugh as the door closed, ‘and “here’s lookin’ at you, kid”!’

Yes, Loki thought as he left her, he had never met anyone quite like Darcy before.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Never Far Away

Darcy

Darcy stared at the box intently. She didn’t remember ordering anything; she hadn’t even hacked into Jane’s ebay account (recently). Anyway, the package was addressed to her. Well, addressed was the loose term. It was simply labelled ‘Darcy’.

That meant it had been hand delivered. But no one knocked the door. In fact, she wouldn’t even have known it was there if Thor hadn’t nearly fallen over it on his way home this morning. Morning also being the loose term for almost noon. She felt a little bad for Loki, really. She imagined that he was just hanging out at Thor’s place, waiting for his brother. It probably wasn’t the best impression to give your brother of the girlfriend you were planning to introduce him to. Loki had picked his brother up this morning, Darcy knew, but she hadn’t seen him. Thor wanted to do it all ‘properly’ by going out to dinner tonight.

And the parcel was still sitting on the kitchen counter where Thor had left it. It wasn’t that she was worried about opening it or anything. It was just that Darcy was trying to work out what the hell it was before she did so. It had been her favourite game at Christmas. Even the years when her parents hadn’t been able to afford much more than a couple of books and a pair of socks for her, she had always loved trying to guess what was inside the wrapping paper. She missed those times…

Darcy pulled herself away from her melancholy thoughts. The box was the right size for a book but slightly bulkier. It was boxed properly so she had no idea as to what its contents were. From the sound it made when Thor nearly dropped it, however, she was going to assume that it was probably breakable and shouldn’t be shaken any more than it had already been.

Eventually she just opened it.

It took her a minute to work out what it was before she realised. Who the hell would send her a barometer? And then she saw the card.

A barometer can judge the changes in pressure. Hopefully it will give you enough warning before the thunder arrives.

There was no signature, nor was there a need for one. Darcy laughed for a full five minutes before she retrieved the nail gun and hung the device in pride of place by the front door. If Jane didn’t like it she could stuff it.

It was the weirdest and yet most thoughtful present she had ever received from a man, hell, from anyone. She wondered how Loki had even managed to find a barometer in the time between leaving her at her door last night and when Thor had found it this morning. Who knew?

She settled down on the couch with her reading for this week’s classes and her old, slow laptop on her knee. Smiling widely every time she glanced towards the door and saw her present.

She should have been studying for her final exams. Or finishing off that last assignment. Or applying for jobs. It was hard for the first while, with Jane flapping around the apartment nervously. Darcy was sure that Loki would like her but she didn’t tell Jane about their acquaintance. If she did Jane would probably insist that Darcy come along as a kind of buffer and this was something that Jane needed to do by herself. After all, she would probably end up getting kicked out of here again as soon as they came back from dinner, so the work she had to finish for college needed to be done now.

She got a fair amount of work done while Jane was out at dinner but any hope of getting her assignment finished that night was ended when Jane and Thor arrived home, a tangle of arms and limbs as they fell through the door. Darcy sighed, shutting her laptop down. She threw a glance at the barometer on the wall, and smiled to herself. ‘Yo, I’m going out, later.’

Predictably, neither party replied and Darcy grabbed her jacket from the hook by the door and, ensuring she had both purse and keys (and Taser, she wasn’t going to forget again) locked the door behind her.

She was debating where to go when she reached the street and jumped at the tall figure leaning against the wall of her building.

‘Dude!’ she exclaimed with a shaky laugh, ‘Don’t do that!’

Loki grinned at her. ‘Well met, Miss Lewis. Escaping the thunder again?’

He was dressed much the same as last night, she noted. Formal trousers, dress shirt, the only real difference was the addition of a tie. Thor had been dressed far more casually (at least, Darcy thought he had been for all of the three seconds that she could actually tolerate looking at him before she fled).

‘Where did you go for dinner?’ She asked before she could stop herself.

He named one of the more upscale local restaurants and Darcy raised an eyebrow. Wow, okay, so Loki had made an effort for the sake of Jane and Thor hadn’t? That seemed a bit… ‘Backward.’ Whoops.

‘Pardon?’

‘Sorry,’ she said casually, ‘just thinking out loud. So, what are you going to do for the rest of the night?’

His smile was absolutely wicked when he answered her. ‘Oh, I thought I might go and try to work up the courage tonight to ask Steve if he is bored yet.’

It took Darcy a moment to catch on before she realised he was talking about her jibe last night. ‘Sounds like a plan. D’you mind having company?’

‘Not at all, Miss Lewis.’ He clicked a button on the set of keys he held and lights flashed on the black sports car parked at the kerb. ‘Shall we?’

Darcy shrugged. ‘Sure, why not? So how… Hang on,’ she thought out loud, ‘if you knew my second name how come you didn’t address the package to Darcy Lewis?’

He waved his hand towards the list of names on the intercom, already walking towards the car. ‘I had already written the card, I’m afraid.’

‘Makes sense. I just wondered, since you’re already stalking me anyway.’ She watched his lips quirk into that lopsided smile as he held her door open for her. Such a gentleman, she thought.

‘Is it really staling if you admit to it? Isn’t there another legal definition?’

‘Huh,’ Darcy considered that for a moment while he shut her door and walked around to his own side of the car. ‘I never really thought about it,’ she admitted as he slid into the driver’s seat. How did he do that? He’s so tall! ‘I guess I’ll have to google it and get back to you.’

He had a nice laugh, Darcy thought. No, ‘nice’ wasn’t the right word. It was a deep and rich chuckle and it was practically sinful how attractive it sounded coming from him. Loki appeared not to notice her assessment of him as he pulled out into the street. ‘I look forward to it.’

Darcy felt her eyes widen slightly as she realised that he had just hinted that he would see her again. He certainly was planning ahead, she thought few minutes later as he pulled into a space near the Irish pub, they hadn’t even had a drink yet.

He helped her out of the car (a girl could get used to treatment like this, Darcy thought) and went to the bar to get the drinks while Darcy saved them their seats. The corner he had occupied last night was free of people and so she dropped into her former seat and threw her jacket onto the other.

She watched Loki at the bar. They may be becoming friends but Darcy wasn’t above appreciating what a good looking man he was. And he really was. She had never really liked long hair on guys (mostly due to a horrific experience with a greasy haired ex in high school and, yes, a week was too long to go without a shower) but on him it kind of worked. He had slicked it back with some sort of gel but Darcy couldn’t imagine it being greasy. In fact, she really wanted to run her hands… Stop it, she told herself, the man is Thor’s brother and lives thousands of miles away. Friends are all you’ll ever get to be. Not that she had really given any thought to anything of that nature excepting her few moments of weakness in appreciating how fine he really was.

Smiling her thanks, she took her mug of (normal) tea off him and moved her jacket.

‘I loved it, by the way,’ she said, suddenly realising her lack of manners.

Loki cocked an eyebrow at her.

‘The barometer,’ Darcy explained, ‘it was... really thoughtful of you. Thank you.’

His voice was warm and his smile wide as he replied, ‘you’re very welcome’.

The next few hours were spent discussing their lives. Loki asked Darcy why she was studying literature (she enjoyed reading and it seemed the most logical choice) and what she wanted to do when her time studying was over in only a matter of days (she had no answer and he didn’t push). He asked her about her friends at college and what she liked to do on the weekend (she didn’t have many beside Jane and she was so utterly boring that she came home, did her work and read some more). But when Loki started to ask questions about her childhood and her family Darcy began questioning back. Deflecting.

‘So I never really got the whole story from Thor,’ she started, and she knew it would seem to him as though it came out of nowhere. ‘Your parents are Norwegian, right?’

‘Yes,’ he explained, going with her sudden change in topic, ‘but we were born in England.’

‘And you moved to the States when you were..?’

‘Thirteen,’ he supplied, raising one eyebrow as he continued with a smirk, ‘and then I moved back to England for university when I was eighteen. Stayed there to do my doctorate and was offered a teaching post in Bath.’

‘What university did you go to?’ she wondered aloud. It was strange that he hadn’t mentioned it.

Loki looked almost shy, ‘Cambridge,’ he murmured into his tea-that-smelt-far-more-yummy-than-it-actually-tasted.

Okay, so he wasn’t just smart, Darcy realised, he was super smart. Like, one of the best in Britain (probably) but definitely too smart to be hanging out with the likes of her.

‘And that’s why I don’t tell people,’ he said with a sigh.

Darcy knew she must have looked shocked but still… ‘Dude, you should be proud that you graduated from Cambridge. I mean, seriously, that’s awesome. What a stupid thing to be embarrassed about,’ she said before her brain could process, ‘being intelligent.’

His surprise was evident. ‘So you don’t think I’m some posh toff?’

It was Darcy’s turn to smirk, ‘Nah, I thought that anyway.’ He was clearly embarrassed though and Darcy tried to steer the conversation round to more neutral waters. ‘So you haven’t told me yet how meeting Jane went. What did you think of her?’

His smile seemed genuine but Darcy got the feeling that she was only beginning to learn to read him. And she had a very long way to go. ‘Jane is lovely,’ he said and Darcy thought she heard something guarded in his tone, ‘and far too good for the likes of my brother.’

‘I know,’ Darcy laughed, ‘the astrophysicist and the soccer player.’

It wasn’t that she had expected him to give her a blow-by-blow account of their meal but Darcy was surprised at the lack of information Loki revealed about the event. It wasn’t like he was all that revealing anyway (as far as she could tell) but it seemed as if he was deliberately holding back. She supposed that made sense, she was Jane’s roommate after all.

‘I haven’t been sent to do recon or anything,’ she clarified suddenly, interrupting his retelling of Thor’s confusion over why all the menus in the French restaurant had to be in French. ‘I haven’t even told Jane that we’ve met. I just… In case you thought I was spying, or something.’

‘I would never believe you could be capable of such things, Darcy,’ he commented, his green eyes entirely focused on hers.

Darcy smiled and took a sip of her tea. She didn’t know why that warmed her heart, but it did.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Just to Be With You

Loki

His first meeting with Jane Foster had gone well as well as expected. So well, in fact, that Thor had invited her around for dinner at his apartment this evening. He had cheerfully announced this when he returned from Jane’s own apartment sometime around noon on the third (if you included his first evening spent in the pub) day of Loki’s seven day visit. Loki had to contain his grimace, it looked as though he was going to have to take a leaf out of Darcy’s book and go out tonight. He was sure that they were going to be simply unbearable after the meal was over.

Not that he didn’t like Miss Foster, she seemed nice enough. But, try as he might not to, Loki couldn’t help but comparing her to the incomprehensible Darcy Lewis. He had no idea how the woman had become friends but they were as different as two people could possibly be. Jane was quiet and demure where Darcy was loud and witty. And, yes, Darcy had been a little shy when they had first met but over the course of the evening Jane had never ventured out of her shell. Loki wondered if she was like that around everyone or if he did something to make her especially nervous. He couldn’t think of anything.

Although he had to admit that he had spent a good portion of the evening studying her. The more he spent in her company the less favourable her comparisons to her younger friend became. Loki was at ease around Darcy, with Jane he was on his guard. He had even noted the physical differences between the women with some amusement. Jane seemed to be very aware of her beauty. And she was certainly beautiful, the all-American girl-next-door with big doe eyes and little dimpled cheeks. She was dressed modestly but attractively and the cocktail dress certainly highlighted her toned figure. And yet Loki didn’t find her attractive. From the second he had laid eyes on Darcy his attention had been instantly engaged not only by her physical beauty but by her apparent unawareness of it. It was her eyes that drew him in more than anything. Deep blue and shining with mischief and sarcasm and intelligence. Jane’s brown eyes were perfectly adequate... and Loki thought that surmised his whole opinion of Miss Foster to a ‘T’.

She was nice but boring. She was a scientist and all her thoughts were linear. What you saw was what you got. By the end of dinner last night he could practically predict her responses to questions and comments every time. She was perfect for Thor, in that regard. Thor was far from stupid but for him everything was simple, predictable and he liked it that way. Jane was the kind of company he needed.

Which made Loki wonder what Thor would be like in conversation with Darcy. Loki remembered thinking at their first encounter that most men would have trouble keeping up with her. He couldn’t imagine the two of them having a conversation. Well, no, actually he could. Thor would nod and smile and pretend he understood her. Then he would say something completely incongruous and Darcy would mock him for it. He hoped he had occasion to witness it someday.

Somehow he had spent more of his holiday thus far in her company than that of the people he came to visit, Loki thought with a mocking smile. He had rather hoped that this trip (the first in many years) would go some way towards starting to knit together the rift in his family but he had not yet had an opportunity to speak to Thor about anything either related to Jane or beyond trivial observations about sports, the weather, the town, and so on.

He had explored the surrounding neighbourhood the first morning, waiting for Thor’s signal that he was ready to be taxied from Jane’s to the training field. Loki didn’t really know how he had got himself into that one. He had been browsing in an old store which seemed to house all sort of knickknacks and oddities when he had seen the barometer.

It had been fifty dollars well spent, he mused, making himself a cup of the tea Darcy had bought him. He had been thinking about buying her a box of chocolate or something equally generic and boring to thank her for it (after all, he didn’t really know her) when he had come across the device set in a polished, wooden block. It had been the prefect thing for her, he thought, and had bought it before he managed to talk himself out of it.

The beaming smile she had rewarded him with and her quiet words of thanks had made it a worthwhile purchase.

Loki resisted the urge to slap himself to pull him out of his musings about the young, gorgeous Literature student. Instead he concentrated on making his cup of tea to distract himself.

‘Brother, how exactly do you make lasagne?’

He should have known that walking into the kitchen was asking for trouble. It wasn’t that Loki wanted to sit on his own and read (again) but it was preferable to trying to teach a thirty-five year old how to cook.

‘Haven’t you got a recipe?’ he asked, trying to wheedle his way out of helping.

‘Yes,’ Thor said, squinting at the offending piece of paper which he had stuck to the overhead cupboard to put it at head height. ‘But it’s not really making much sense. “Brown the mince”? With what? Does that mean adding some sort of sauce?’

Boring as Loki may find her it was probably good that Thor had Jane. Simply for the fact that she was too intelligent to let him starve or eat too much junk food. It was a sore topic for Thor, he knew, ever since his manager told him that he was getting older and he had to stop eating like a student. Loki had repressed the urge to laugh when he told him. But for all his whining he was damn lucky to still have a professional career in football at the age of thirty five.

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, resigning himself to his fate.

‘No, Thor, it doesn’t mean to add sauce…’

In the end Loki contributed more to the actual making of the meal than Thor. So much so that he ended up absolutely covered in tomato sauce. He grimaced at his appeared as he peeled off his shirt. He looked like he had been stabbed.

One quick shower and change later Jane was knocking at the door and Thor ran to greet her while Loki was left to search his kitchen for oven gloves (he didn’t have any) and ended up using a towel instead.

‘Hello, Jane,’ he greeted as she wandered into the room with Thor on her heels, ‘nice to see you again.’ It was a lie, but it was well meant.

She offered her help and Loki (feeling that someone should be polite) waved her off and set the plates himself. Thor’s contribution was to carry them from the bench to the table.

Dinner passed much in the same fashion as last night. Jane was fine, thanks for asking. Loki was enjoying his stay thus far. Thor had done something in practice today that the coach had thought remarkable and could he do that during a match? The food was nice; the wine Jane supplied complimented the dish well and Thor boasted that his attempt at cooking hadn’t gone as badly as anticipated. Loki rolled his eyes and refrained from telling Jane that she had almost been eating raw mince in gravy.

After dinner the conversation became even more strained as it became apparent to Loki that the other two wanted nothing more than to be alone. They managed to sit through half an hour of mind numbing television (why exactly was Scrubs so popular?) before Thor had to ‘show something’ to Jane in his bedroom. More eye-rolling ensued on Loki’s part before he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.

He didn’t even question his decision to visit Darcy until he was standing outside the apartment door, hand raised to knock.

She had never objected to his company before but that had been when she had nothing better to do. It was different this evening. Loki was the one forced out by the ridiculous antics of his brother and soon-to-be-fiancée and he would, effectively, be intruding on one of the seemingly few evenings that Darcy was free to spend in her own apartment as she wished. He sighed and lowered his hand, maybe he should leave her in peace.

His phone started to ring and Loki silenced it quickly. He glanced at the screen. It was only work and he was on holiday, he could ring them back later.

Slipping the phone back in his pocket, he looked again at the door. He shouldn’t depend on Darcy to amuse him because his brother was otherwise occupied, Loki decided. That wasn’t his intention in spending time with her but he saw that Darcy might perceive it as thus. The truth was that the enjoyed her company. She was loud and shy, awkward and confident. She was, quite simply, a series of very interesting paradoxes that shouldn’t exist in one woman. And Loki found her fascinating.

No, he decided, he would give Darcy her space tonight. It wasn’t fair to intrude. No sooner had he turned away, however, than a now familiar voice called after him down the hall.

‘You’re really bad at this stalking thing, you know.’ Loki turned and saw her head poking around the doorframe. ‘Turning your cell off has to be one of the cardinal rules.’ He had to laugh at that as Darcy eyed him speculatively. ‘So, you coming in or what?’

‘I… I don’t want to intrude on your evening,’ he said honestly, holding his hands out in a show of honesty.

The woman laughed at him and Loki had to smile with her. ‘Don’t be stupid.’

Her head disappeared back into her apartment and Loki hesitated for only a second before following.

‘So, I’m sorry about the mess,’ her disembodied voice called out from somewhere down the hall. Loki looked around the living area that he was standing in. It was nice, cosy. Two big fabric covered sofas in a dark purple, cream walls and a slightly darker cream carpet. The entertainment unit seemed to be filled with an odd mixture of books, CDs and DVDs. Loki bent over to look at them, guessing that most belonged to Darcy. The range was astonishing.

One of the chairs was littered with books and papers. Loki went to sit down on the other when Darcy’s hand seemingly shot out of nowhere and grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t!’

He looked at her, bewildered. ‘Sorry, what?’

‘That’s the couch,’ she said, as if it were obvious, ‘you know? The couch.’ Ah yes, he remembered her complaining about sights she would rather not see that included a sofa.

Loki’s sarcastic comeback died in his throat as he realised why Darcy had only stuck her head out the apartment door. She was wearing a pair of jogging bottoms and a sleeveless vest-top, not skimpy by anyone’s standards but a lot less layers than Loki had observed her in before. Her hair was caught up in a messy ponytail and she was wearing glasses. It was a typical student outfit but Loki could see bits of Darcy’s personality shining through. She had stuck a pen through her ponytail, perhaps because her glasses stopped her putting it behind her ear. The glasses themselves had thick, black plastic frames and Loki thought that they suited her immensely. But her top, well it said it all really.

It was a dark burgundy and Loki absently noted that it brought out the red tinges in her hair. Black letters curled over the fabric and Loki recognised the quotation immediately, even though it was not his area of expertise. This above all: to thine own self be true.

‘Hamlet,’ he said without thinking as Darcy started to clear some papers away to allow him to sit on ‘her’ sofa. ‘The quotation,’ he qualified as she threw a confused look over her shoulder, ‘it’s from Hamlet, isn’t it?’

He watched as she looked down at her top as if she had forgotten what she was wearing. ‘Oh, yeah, it is.’ She moved the last of the papers onto the pile on the floor and patted the space beside her. ‘Have a seat. Can I get you anything to eat or drink? I don’t have any Earl Grey but we have wine or…’ she paused and crinkled her nose in thought, her glasses slipping a couple of inches, ‘yeah, I think we pretty much just have wine. I could stretch to some tap water, I suppose.’

Loki reassured her that water was fine and Darcy left him to his own devices. In her absence he looked again at her impressive DVD collection. He lifted one of the cases out and was reading the back of it when she reappeared with two glasses of water.

‘I love that show,’ she commented, folding her legs in underneath her as she sat down. ‘I mean, I always liked the stories, devoured them as a kid. I never really liked any of the older movies though. I don’t know, I just didn’t really think they got how Sherlock’s brain worked, you know. With the series it’s like being able to see inside his head. And yeah the stories and updated and all that but they’re still based on Conan Doyle’s work.’

‘I’ve never seen it,’ Loki admitted, still scanning the blurb.

‘You can’t be serious,’ Darcy said, sounding horrified. Loki glanced at her and saw her expression had turned to one of mock annoyance. ‘Well then, my dear Watson, we must remedy this immediately!’

Her accent really was terrible, he thought with a chuckle as she snatched the case out of his hands and went to set up the DVD player. ‘Why am I Watson?’ he asked, mimicking her tone.

‘Because you’re a doctor…’ she trailed off, waving her hand at him in a patronising yet oddly comical way. 

‘And...?’ he asked, waving his own right back.

Darcy grabbed the remote and settled back into her seat. ‘And I’m clearly the antisocial genius who doesn’t know when their big mouth is offending people.’

He chuckled as she aimed the remote at the television set with a concentration that he imagined most snipers used. ‘Well, that’s explains everything.’

Darcy returned his laugh with her own, ‘Yes, it does. Now shut up, the tall, dark and sexy British man is talking.’ 

‘He was until you shushed him.’ His response was automatic but Loki wondered if she would read more into his unguarded words than he intended.

She cocked her head at him and laughed suddenly. ‘Whatever you say, Doc.’

Loki grinned back at her.

By the end of the first episode Loki was hooked, though he could feel his eyes beginning to feel heavy. During that time Darcy had begun to slowly (and apparent unknowingly) migrate over to his side of the sofa. So much so that when her back came into contact with his chest she jumped a little.

‘Sorry, I usually sit there,’ she explained, sitting upright again. ‘It’s easier to see from that angle.’

‘I don’t mind,’ he mumbled quietly, leaning his arm on the back of the sofa and allowing Darcy to rest her back against him. ‘I’m invading your night, you might as well be comfortable.’

Even though he was struggling to concentrate on the new episode of Sherlock Darcy’s next words made him feel much less guilty and inordinately happy.

‘If this is invading feel free to do it any time.’


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Wrap my Words Around You

Darcy

Assignments? Done. Last report? Sent. Last final? Well, it wasn’t until tomorrow morning and she had seriously hit a wall with the whole studying thing.

Darcy’s phone vibrated on the coffee table and she picked it up, the display telling her that she had a text from Jane.

R u finished with rvision? Wanna meet us for dinner? Plz, plz, plz. wb

When talking to Jane that morning about her whole meet-the-brother experience she had got the distinct impression that Jane found Loki to be boring. What was wrong with her? Darcy had probably spent more time with the man than Jane and though she had to admit that he was quiet (well, quieter than her) ‘boring’ was not a word she would ever use to describe him.

Gorgeous? Obviously. Intelligent? Clearly. Witty? In her company at least. And thoughtful, she remembered, smiling at her barometer and the memory of watching Sherlock, leaning back against his chest to make herself comfortable. More thoughtful than any other man she had ever met.

As much as Darcy had wanted to pull Jane up on her (wrong) opinion of Loki Darcy had appreciated the comedy value of being secret friends with Jane’s future brother in law. It was what gave her the advantage when Jane sprung things like this on her.

She grabbed her cell and typed out a quick reply.

Nearly done. When and where?

She sent it off and then added a quick text as postscript.

And how dressy?

As a literature student, Darcy hated people using text language. How dare she expect they spend another three seconds spelling things properly.

Her cell buzzed again.

Bistro on Seymour St. Fancy. See you in 1h.

Darcy sighed and headed for the bathroom, at least she had time to shower and get ready. She had been studying all day in the same clothes she had been in when Loki had arrived last night.

She had woken up disoriented, confused as to what was tickling the back of her neck and why her pillow seemed to be moving, before she realised what had happened. One glance at the television told her that the episode of Sherlock had ended (being on the menu screen all night couldn’t have been good for her DVD) but that both of them had obviously fallen asleep well before then. To Darcy’s utter mortification she was wrapped around Loki as much as the small space allowed. She didn’t know how she had achieved it (since she had fallen asleep with her back against him) but at some point during the night she had managed to wrap her arms around him, straddle one of his legs and bury her head in the crook of his neck. He had been no better, she remembered with a smile, with his hand on her stomach and his knee between her legs. She had been forced to fight back a whimper at his close proximity when he shifted slightly in his sleep and Darcy felt the outline of something surprisingly impressive pushing against her hip.

But he was so very proper with her that Darcy had quietly disentangled herself from him. Loki was her friend. She could well imagine his horror if he knew half the things she thought about in relation to him. He didn’t see her like that, that much was obvious. But still, a girl could dream. Especially when the object of such dreams was tall and dark and looked absolutely edible first thing in the morning. He had woken up rumpled, his hair curling slightly and his voice like gravel and honey. Damn, he was sexy. He sure looked a lot better than she did first thing.

She caught her reflection in the mirror and winced slightly. Sweats and a tank top. Nice, you’re such a catch Lewis. At least now she got the chance to dress a bit nicer. Not that she was trying to impress him, but what woman wanted a man to remember her looking like that? Was that sexist? She pondered the question as she washed her hair. She really wanted to not care about what her best-friend’s-boyfriend’s-brother, her maybe-friend-who-had-accidentally-spent-the-night thought of her. But she did.

Hence the weird tangent her research took this this afternoon.

It took Darcy an hour to get ready, ten minutes to hail a cab and another ten to make it to the restaurant. She was going to be late. Ah well, it was Jane’s fault for giving her such short notice. And she had needed that hour to get ready. She was totally rocking her green wrap dress. Her hair had cooperated with the mousse and was curly and wild. A touch of makeup, some brown-ish lipstick and a pair of muted gold wedges and had been ready to go. She had felt overdressed in the cab but now she was glad.

She waited at the hostess desk inside the restaurant, trying to spy her party. She didn’t know the name they had reserved the table under and the hostess was being a bitch.

‘Look,’ Darcy said after trying both Jane and Thor’s first and second names, ‘it’s a table of three people waiting for one more. Surely that’s not rocket science? One of the guys is tall, blond and built like a line-backer and the other is a bit smaller, slight and has longer dark hair.’

Ouch, she realised replaying the words, she hadn’t made Loki sound too good. She thought that the stuck up hostess might get a bit offended, however, if she started waxing lyrically about his angular jaw and how he always seemed to smell slightly like bergamot from that damn tea.

Finally, one of the waiters claimed to know the table she was talking about. Darcy was now thirty minutes late and she could see that the other three had already ordered drinks. Well, Thor and Jane had ordered drinks, a very yummy looking red wine. And speaking of things that were yummy looking…

Loki’s back was to her and (while she really appreciated the sight of his broad shoulders in a green shirt that she just knew would made his eyes look spectacular) as far as she could see he only had water. None of the three had yet to see her approach. And if she was already late Darcy certainly wasn’t averse to making an entrance. He had just taken a drink of water, she noted with glee, so now was the perfect time…

‘So, I hear you fucked a horse.’

She had been hoping for a little spray action going on (and there was certainly some of that from Thor, Darcy would have felt sorry for the poor waiter if it wasn’t so funny) but Loki simply choked quietly on his sip of water quietly before turning in his chair to look at her.

Darcy watched as he froze. She quickly took stock of her appearance. No, she hadn’t managed to get grease off the taxi on her. No, her underwear wasn’t caught in the fabric of her dress. Yes, her boobs were still contained. So why was he looking at her like that? She caught the nervous bobbing of his Adam’s Apple that probably had more to do with coughing than his strange reaction to her. Darcy stared intently at the skin of his throat. Man, what she wouldn’t give to be able to…

Darcy’s own eyes widened slightly. Was he checking her out? Loki hadn’t yet given any indication that he saw her as more than potential friend material but as she tried to assess his features she found that his usual devil-may-care attitude was back in full force.

He was still a gentleman, though, she noted as he rose from his seat to greet her. That grin was back, the one she found so strangely thrilling. At least he was amused by her, Thor was currently apologising profusely to the waiter and offering to pay for his dry cleaning, while Jane looked simply mortified.

‘Hello Darcy,’ he said simply, pulling out the chair beside his own for her, ‘always a pleasure.’

Darcy smirked at him as she sat, holding his gaze to see if it wavered south of her face (it didn’t) or betrayed anything of his earlier reaction. ‘Such bad manners,’ her voice dripped with false shock as she nodded to Thor, ‘and I hadn’t even mentioned your other partners.’

His answering chuckle sent a shock of heat across her cheeks. ‘And how would such a lovely young woman know about such things, Miss Lewis?’

‘Wikipedia,’ she answered honestly, ‘but if you have any more academic sources I should consult I’ll try to keep up with the reading, sir.’

A very, very torrid thought entered her mind about what Darcy would have done if Loki was her teacher. She dismissed it as quickly as possible. She shouldn’t be thinking about such things in his presence, her blush would surely give her away.

Darcy had, in fact, spent a considerable portion of her afternoon researching Norse mythology. She had done the same thing after she had been introduced to Thor, mainly so she could tease him about his name. 

It may be that Loki was only visiting for a few days and she would never see him again. But the more she read the more Darcy became interested. There was some weird stuff written about the gods. Like, beyond weird. And she didn’t even want to think about the other stories about Loki’s children that were out there. Ew. Most of the stuff about the God of Mischief, however, was surprisingly relevant to the man she knew. He seemed to give off an aura of sarcasm and mischief. Or was she reading into it too much? Even so, it had given her good ammunition.

And it seemed like a good conversation starter, especially given the look on Loki’s face which seemed to be simultaneously shocked, bemused and more than slightly impressed.

‘Well, there you go,’ he said as if it were obvious, ‘you can’t believe anything you read on that completely unfounded piece of rubbish.’

Darcy smiled back, ‘I don’t know. I mean, it gives me good plot summaries if I ever miss an episode of CSI.’

‘CSI:CSI?’ he asked with another smile, ‘Or CSI:Miami? Because the future of my access to Earl Grey rests on the answer. I couldn’t possibly be associated with someone who thinks that Miami is decent television.’

Darcy made a noise of dismissal, ‘Of course not. Did you ever see the episode where the guy lands in the giant ice sculpture? “That’s cold-blooded murder, Horatio.” “It’s as cold as ice”. Seriously, who writes this stuff? And what’s with the sunglasses? I mean, you either need them or you don’t. You can’t just whip them off for every dramatic moment. And I already bought you at least a week’s supply of the stuff. How much do you drink in a day?’ It was rhetorical, he had probably finished it already, she guessed.

It was only at this point in their duologue that Darcy became aware that Jane was simply gawking at the two of them. Darcy supposed she probably should have said hello to her to start with. ‘Hi Jane. What’s up?’

Thor was looking between the two of them too, looking just as confused as his girlfriend. ‘Do you two know each other?’

It was Loki who answered his brother. ‘While you and Jane have been otherwise occupied Darcy and I have been holding clandestine meetings of our own.’

Darcy snorted, ‘They’re hardly “clandestine”, my voice is probably loud enough to wake the Allfather from his sleep.’ It took her a few seconds (and a mental replay of both her words and his) to realise that Loki’s chuckles weren’t simply the result of her mythological allusion. And probably went a great deal to explaining the look of horror on Jane’s face. Poor Jane who (for all her PDAs in front of Darcy) clammed up at the mere mention of ‘sleepovers’ in public. ‘Oh, no. Totally not what I meant! I’m not… We’re not… Shit.’

Loki’s chuckles had progressed to full blown, loud laughter. He was even attracting the attention of the surrounding five tables. And so Darcy hit him in the ribs with her rolled up napkin. ‘Shut up, you lead me into it.’

‘I would apologise,’ he offered with the mocking smile back in force, ‘but I’m not really sorry.’

Jane and Thor were still looking at her as if she was some sort of freak. Darcy decided to clarify. ‘Hey, you two? First, catch up on your Norse mythology if you’re going to be called “Thor”. I don’t actually think your brother’s that kinky.’ Well, not in that way, her mind supplied helpfully, although she did wonder if someone who was such a gentleman… Don’t go there now, Darcy! ‘Second,’ she continued, ‘if you two are going to force me out of the apartment then I need somewhere to go and someone to complain to. So, this is Loki,’ she said waving her hand over him as if explaining something extremely complicated to small child, ‘I buy him tea and he listens to me bitch about seeing your naked asses passed out on the couch from time to time.’ Jane had the courtesy to blush at that but Thor simply smiled, apparently seeing no shame in showing his rump to his girlfriend’s roommate. ‘And thirdly, why the hell do you two have wine and I don’t?’

Thor took that as an invitation to flag down a waiter (as they were all now avoiding their table) to ask for a drink for Darcy and for someone to take their orders. Darcy hadn’t even seen a menu yet. The waiter stared at her impatiently as she looked back blankly. ‘Um, I’ll have what he’s having,’ she jabbed her thumb in the direction of her still-smirking friend and said friend raised an eyebrow at her.

‘Are you sure that’s wise, especially after the tea incident?’ He didn’t wait for her to answer. ‘I’ll have the marinated salmon on a bed of egg noodles, and one for the lady.’ Was there something slightly mocking in his tone or was Darcy imagining it? ‘Does that sound alright?’

She shrugged. ‘Sure, sounds good.’

It was only when she tried to actually eat the food not long after that Darcy realised why he had insisted on noodles and not the potato option that was on the menu. When asked, though, Loki remained silent on her accusation that he had edited their orders to watch her struggle to ‘wrap the slippery buggers round the effing fork’. His smirk as he expertly twirled the noodles around his own fork, however, could probably have been seen from the next town.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 –Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Darcy

The food was nice but the conversation? Well it was a bit… strained, was that the right word? Darcy had known that things were going to be awkward between Jane and Loki (her grand entrance had helped a little but only for a few minutes) but she hadn’t expected it to be this bad.

It seemed that neither Jane nor Thor were very good at holding a conversation with Loki. He was trying hard, so hard to be polite, to ask the right questions, give compliments and comment on their stories and comments but he was met at every turn by indifferent answers from both before they turned their attention back to each other. And, okay, Darcy had had a little private joke with Loki when she arrived but she hadn’t been downright rude to the other two the way they were acting now.

‘I need to pee,’ she announced loudly, halfway through Thor’s thrilling story about something about soccer. The waiter trying to dodge their table gave her a disgusted look. ‘Seriously, Jane, can you show me where the bathroom is?’

Jane looked at her incredulously, waving her hand in the direction of the well signalled ‘restrooms’. Darcy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. ‘Alright, you coming?’

‘You’re not a child, Darce. You can go yourself, you know.’

I am not the one acting like a child, Darcy felt like yelling. Instead, she shot the older woman a particularly nasty look and insisted that Jane accompany her. Without thinking about it, she reached over to grip Loki’s hand tightly, whispering a soft ‘be right back’ in his ear as she stood. He gave her a glance full of curiosity but did not comment otherwise.

And then Darcy practically hauled Jane into the bathroom.

‘Alright, what the hell has Loki done to deserve this?’

To say that Jane looked shocked would be an understatement. Come to think of it so did the woman fixing her lipstick in the bathroom mirror. Someone should really tell her that the pink didn’t go with her red dress but Darcy pointedly ignored her nosiness and continued to address Jane. ‘Seriously, he’s been nothing but nice to you and you’re ignoring him? That’s real mature, Jane.’

‘I…’ Jane stuttered, ‘I just… Thor…’

And therein lay the problem, Darcy thought. ‘You know I get that Thor is the most important thing in your life, I really do. I don’t complain when you stay away from the apartment for days at a time, I don’t even say anything when I have to leave the apartment for hours at a time. But that’s me,’ Darcy stressed, ‘and I’m a friend who you see all the time. Loki is only here for a few days and you can’t pull your attention away from the man-beast long enough to be polite?’ Jane’s cheeks were beginning to flush pink and the woman at the mirror was no longer even pretending to fix her makeup. ‘The man travelled hundreds of miles to meet you, Jane. It seems to me that the least you could do would be to talk to him instead of making sex eyes at his brother across the dinner table.’ Her cheeks had bypassed pink and gone to a mottled red. Darcy noted with some satisfaction that Jane (ever perfect, lovely, girl-next-door Jane) really didn’t have an attractive blush. Not that she would ever mention it to her, but still…

‘And do you know the worst thing?’ Darcy continued, her rage building. ‘He is, honestly, the nicest guy I’ve ever met. And the only reason I think I ever got to find that out was that the two of you couldn’t be bothered to spend any time with him. For fuck sake, Jane, he’s taken time off work and flown half way around the world and you can’t even talk to him about the food or his job or the fucking weather.’ The eavesdropper looked positively horrified at her language and Darcy couldn’t help but smirk.

Jane looked at Darcy sullenly and muttered quietly, ‘Well obviously you would take his side.’

Darcy narrowed her eyes at the older woman. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I know he spent the night,’ she declared, looking a bit more sure of herself.

‘If he did that’s none of your business,’ Darcy practically growled at Jane before turning to the woman in the red dress, ‘or yours, you nosy old cow.’

‘Darcy!’ Jane exclaimed, horrified as the woman threw her lipstick into her clutch and stalked out of the room.

Whirling to face her friend again, Darcy brandished her own bag at Jane emphatically. ‘Loki and I fell asleep on the couch, watching TV. So what? Do I get all judgemental on you when you disappear to Thor’s for the whole weekend? Because the situations are nowhere near the same.’

‘No,’ Jane admitted sheepishly, ‘but…’

Darcy laughed loudly. ‘So what’s the problem? You want the truth?’ she asked, without waiting for an answer. ‘Yes, I like Loki. He’s considerate and funny and sexy but he also doesn’t even live in the same country as me. So no, it’s never going to happen and I’m okay with that. We’ve become friends over the last few days, Jane,’ she told the older woman, ‘so if you won’t make an effort for Thor then please, please make an effort to be nice to one of my very few friends.’

The sympathy card, Darcy sighed internally, this is what I’ve been reduced to. But, if it works…

Jane nodded slowly, ‘I’ll try, Darce. I’m sorry, really, I…’

Darcy held up a hand. ‘It’s not me you need to apologise to. Just try again, please.’ Jane nodded again and Darcy handed her a tissue from the box by the sinks. ‘Alright, thank you.’

‘I’m sorry, Darcy. I didn’t realise you felt so hurt about me spending time with Thor.’

Darcy rolled her eyes, ‘Don’t sweat it, just remember that other people live on this planet too and we’ll be fine.’ Darcy linked her arm into Jane’s and smiled to show that they were okay. Jane smiled back and Darcy led them out of the bathrooms and back into the restaurant. She looked over to the table where Loki was sitting and saw red.

As in, the woman in the red dress was talking extremely quickly and with very emphatic arm waving and Loki’s face was growing stonier by the second.

The hell?

‘Loki? Is everything alright?’

The woman started at her appearance. Loki turned to look at Darcy and she could tell immediately that his smile was forced. And probably for her sake. ‘Everything’s fine, Darcy. Mrs Coulson was just discussing how rude it is to talk about people without their knowledge.’ To anyone else the words would have sounded like a threat and, indeed, they were. But not one aimed at Darcy. ‘Isn’t that correct, Mrs Coulson?’

The woman glanced almost nervously at Darcy before turning on her heel and walking away. Darcy stared at Loki nervously as she sat down. ‘Was she telling you what she heard in the bathroom?’

‘I didn’t give her the chance to,’ his voice was still slightly frosty and he continued to glare after the woman, ‘not after the first thing she did was to…’ He broke off.

‘Was to what?’ Darcy demanded.

‘She called you a whore,’ Thor supplied helpfully from the other side of the table, ‘but it’s alright, Loki set her straight.’

She could imagine, Darcy thought as she noted the fury on his face. But she wondered if that was all that ‘Mrs Coulson’ had said to upset him. Surely he wouldn’t be that enraged over some said about her, of all people.

The meal effectively over, Jane suggested going dancing at the new club a few blocks away. So, even though she had finals tomorrow and had limited herself to one glass of wine. Even though Darcy really, really hated clubs. And even though she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the hot Englishman who was still brooding silently, she agreed. Jane was trying, because Darcy had asked her to.

The club itself was like every other she had ever been in. Too many people in a packed space, nowhere safe to leave their coats and bags, and a dance floor teaming with couples engaged in semi-pornographic activities. She danced one song with Jane (to keep her happy) before making her way back to where Loki was sitting at the bar. Still drinking only water. Apparently he was driving tonight.

And he looked about as comfortable with his surroundings as Darcy knew that she did. Darcy quickly took the recently vacated seat beside him.

‘Are you alright?’ she asked, leaning closer to him in order to make herself heard over the music.

He shrugged. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘You look bored,’ she commented, before reconsidering, ‘and angry.’ But not with her, she knew as he attempted a smile at her.

‘No,’ he said, voice dripping with sarcasm but smile still in place, ‘really, I’m having such fun.’

‘What did that woman say to you?’ she persisted. ‘’Cause she wasn’t even there when I really tore into Jane. Man, you should have seen the look on her face when I told her it was none of her business, it was awesome.’

‘You were arguing with Jane?’ His confusion was evident, a stark change from the previous anger.

‘Yeah,’ Darcy replied slowly, ‘I was tearing her a new one for being a professionally employed woman in her thirties acting like a teenager who thinks their first crush is the only person on the planet. She was being completely childish and selfish and I pulled her up on it. She left right after Jane accused me of sleeping with you, probably explains the whole calling me a whore thing.’ Man, her life was turning into such a drama-fest.

‘You were arguing with Jane over me?’

The shock in his tone was actually a little insulting. ‘Kind of,’ Darcy explained, ‘but it was more about her attitude. I’m used to her whole Thor-is-the-centre-of-the-universe routine but that doesn’t mean that you should have to put up with it. I mean, it was cute at first (young love and all that) but they just take it to the extreme. If she’s not with Thor then she’s talking about him. And I get that, I really do. But when you have company then you should act like it. You know what I mean?’

Loki gave her the first genuinely happy smile she had seen since the beginning of their meal. ‘You really didn’t have to do that, Darcy.’

She shrugged in response. ‘They had it coming.’ She looked over the dance floor and turned back to Loki with a snicker, ‘Anyway, I want to say it worked but, well…’

She gestured to where Jane and Thor were dancing. The sight was every bit as cringe worthy as the other dancers in the club. Nevertheless, Darcy teased Loki when he indicated his disgust by sighing and rolling his eyes. ‘You’re letting your age show there, Doc,’ she sassed, bumping his shoulder with her own, ‘I might have to re-evaluate your coolness. You don’t actually own any Brut, do you? I mean, I know I mentioned it other night in the bar but it really is a sign you’re “getting on a bit”.’

She knew her attempt at copying his accent was terrible (she could never make her voice sound that sexy) but Loki smiled anyway. ‘No, but I have been considering investing in some tweed.’

‘Well, that would be a damn shame,’ Darcy said before she could stop herself. ‘You’re far too pretty to be wearing old man clothes.’

‘Pretty?’ he said, that damned eyebrow rose again, ‘You think I’m “pretty”?’

‘Er, maybe that was the wrong word,’ she backtracked, ‘handsome? Is that a bit more masculine?’

She could hear Loki’s laugh even as he pulled back from her slightly.

Okay, insult successfully averted. Change course. She glanced over to where she could see Thor and Jane dancing (ew, brain bleach please) and let her mouth ramble the first thing that came into her head.

‘You know, you and Thor look nothing alike. Like day and night, seriously.’

‘Why should we look alike?’ She watched as his dark eyebrows furrowed, ‘I’m adopted.’

Oh shit.  



	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Say Something Now

Loki

‘I, uh, um…’

She was like a fish out of water, floundering.

‘You didn’t know?’ He knew that his tone betrayed his surprise.

Darcy shook her head vehemently. ‘No, I really didn’t, I swear. I’m sorry, I never would have brought it up if… not that there’s anything wrong with… I’m going to shut up now.’

She averted her eyes and he placed his fingers under her chin to tilt her head up. She looked thoroughly ashamed and her cheeks were ashen.

‘Wait here,’ he told Darcy, ‘I’ll be right back.’

He weaved his way past some of the other dancers to reach Thor and Jane. ‘I’m heading back now. I’m assuming you’ll be staying at Jane’s tonight?’ he shouted over the music. Thor nodded an affirmative. ‘Alright, Darcy’s ready to leave too, so I’ll take her with me. See you tomorrow.’

He didn’t give any more explanation as he hurried back to Darcy’s side just in time to give a particular malevolent glare to some git who was obviously staring at her. Darcy appeared not to notice, simply handing Loki his jacket, her own already in her hands. It surprised him that she knew he wanted to leave but maybe it shouldn’t have.

The idiot beside her was still staring at her… well at certain parts of her. Loki took her jacket from her and helped her into quickly. He looped his hand under her hair and pulled it over her collar before he even realised what he was doing, his hand brushing against the warm skin of her neck as he did so. Darcy merely smiled and thanked him.

He allowed her to pass in front of him as they left, his hand behind her back but not quite touching. Loki hadn’t been drinking anything other than water all night and so he led her to his rental car, holding her door for her and acting as much like a gentleman as he could when she was wearing something like tonight.

He couldn’t really blame the men in the club for staring at her; he had been trying his hardest all night not to. She simply had no idea how beautiful she was. She looked as if she had been poured into the dark green wrap dress. It hugged every curve she had and he knew that when he had first seen her this evening his mind had shut down, if only for a second. He had thought her beautiful when dressed in baggy layers and sweatshirts but now she was simply stunning.

But this was Darcy, the rational part of his brain reminded him, and she didn’t deserve to be objectified in such a manner. Even if he hadn’t been able to pull his gaze from her when she was dancing with Jane.

‘Where are we going?’ Darcy asked as he started the car.

‘My brother is staying in your apartment tonight. I thought maybe you would consent to come with me and we could talk.’

Her face gave away nothing as she stared out the windscreen. ‘Okay.’

She was unusually quiet and Loki knew it was because she was afraid she had insulted him. True, she had touched upon an extremely sensitive subject but she hadn’t known any better. And it wasn’t a conversation that Loki wanted to have in a crowded club. In fact, it shocked him that he even wanted to have it at all.

Neither of them spoke until they arrived at Thor’s apartment building. In fact, neither of them spoke until they were inside his apartment and Loki asked Darcy if she wanted anything to drink.

‘Whatever you’re having,’ she had replied. 

He passed her a mug a minute later and cheerfully said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not Earl Grey.’ He had made it for himself but had used one of Thor’s breakfast teabags for Darcy; it would be more to her taste. Loki followed her as she sat herself on the sofa. They were only inches apart as he lowered himself into the seat next to her. ‘Darcy,’ he began slowly, trying to find her eyes with his but she was staring at the carpet. ‘Did you really not know I was adopted?’

‘No,’ she said, sounding miserable. ‘I’ve never met any of the rest of Thor’s family, I just sort of assumed that you took after different people or something.’

‘Does Thor talk about me a lot?’ He asked, almost fearing the answer. If he hadn’t told Darcy about their whole sordid history then maybe he didn’t talk about him at all.

She shrugged, still unable to meet his eyes. ‘I don’t know. I’m an only child but… I guess he mentions you about as much as Jane mentions her brother. But I swear he never told me you were adopted. I don’t think he’s told Jane either, she probably would have given me a heads-up so I didn’t say anything as idiotic as I did tonight.’

Thor hadn’t told them? The two people he spent the most time with outside work?

‘It’s… I’m,’ he amended, ‘a bone of contention in the family. I only found out by accident. My mother was in a car crash while I was visiting her one summer and she needed a kidney transplant. I offered to be the donor and the doctors told that surely I knew that wouldn’t be possible.’

Darcy was biting her lip as he raised her eyes to look at him cautiously. ‘What age were you?’

He sighed, ‘Twenty five.’

‘That… sucks… They didn’t tell you when you turned eighteen? I thought that was a legal rule or something.’

‘No, just an expected guideline,’ he said, sighing into his hands. ‘After I confronted them my parents told me everything. My father told me how I had been abandoned outside their house in England in the middle of winter. How he found me on the doorstep as he left for work one morning, blue with the cold. I very nearly didn’t survive, apparently. My mother took me to hospital and I was cared for but they couldn’t track down my real parents and Thor was four at the time and I was probably only a few weeks old. So Nicholas and Frigga adopted me.

‘Thor hated me on sight, apparently,’ he said with a sigh. ‘He was jealous of someone taking away his parents’ attention. He would compete with me over everything when we were younger. I was never very athletic or very good with people, Thor was. I was always quieter. It became like a game to him. He always mocked me for being weak, for having no friends. But it was hard to make friends standing in the shadow of your older brother, especially one such as Thor. We never really got along but we were brothers so we made do…’ he trailed off, unwilling to continue but Darcy seemed to sense what he was unable to say.

‘Until you found out?’ Her voice was quiet. Loki knew that she wasn’t trying to push, was willing to wait for his response. Was willing to listen.

‘Yes,’ he whispered, his nails biting into the palms of his hands as he clenched them. ‘He made a joke out of it, saying that he knew we would never have been biologically related. I really needed my brother and instead he was so… so relieved that I was adopted. It was like I had never been anything to him but an embarrassment and an annoyance.’

He could recall that particular conversation with the most clarity. ‘In truth, I think that hurt more than finding out about the adoption.’ He looked down at his hands, willing himself to have the courage to admit the most shameful part of the whole affair. ‘And it all happened while my mother was in hospital. She was barely recovered from surgery when I marched in demanding to know why they had lied to me all those years. I don’t think I even cared about the answers; I just wanted them to know that I knew. I told them that I would never forgive them.’

Darcy’s voice contained no judgement. ‘And what about your relationship with them now?’

He clasped his hands together, still unable to look at her. He didn’t want see pity in Darcy’s eyes. ‘I’ve spoken to them, exchanged emails and so on. But I haven’t seen them since then.’ He knew she would ask about Thor next and so Loki answered for her. ‘Thor kept quiet for five years before he emailed me a few weeks ago. He apologised for his behaviour and asked me to visit. He claimed that he wanted to talk everything over and that he wanted me to meet Jane. I’m sure you could guess why,’ he added wryly. When Thor had told him that he was planning to propose Loki had been surprised, but he had a feeling that to Darcy it would be obvious. ‘But Thor seems determined to pretend that the whole thing just never happened, so…’

Loki trailed off, aware of how bitter he sounded. He knew that Darcy would infer that he held Jane responsible. Not completely, but to some degree. And Darcy was her friend. He really shouldn’t have said anything. He dropped his head into his hands. Her weight shifted next to him as she stood up. She was leaving, Loki thought, and he still couldn’t bear to meet her eyes with the shame and humiliation of what he had just revealed to her. She would think him a child, spoilt and ungrateful and bitter. He was surprised, then, when he heard her kneel on the floor in front of him and felt her fingers thread through the hair at the back of his head. She pulled gently, forcing him to raise his head and meet her eyes. There was no pity there. Empathy, understanding, acceptance. But no pity.

For a long time she said nothing, simply staring at Loki as if she were trying to work out a very complicated equation. The finally she spoke, ‘You know I don’t like the way they’ve been acting. But I think that if reconciliation is what you want, Loki, then it’s up to you to try for it.’ She still hadn’t removed her hand, he noted absently, but her grip relaxed slightly as she talked. ‘If you grew up in Thor’s shadow then you’ve become used to accommodating people, to taking a lot of shit before you finally explode. I’m not saying you’re a doormat but you’re too used to letting Thor get his own way without standing up for yourself.’ She was psychoanalysing him, Loki noted with some amusement, but damn it all to hell if what she was saying didn’t make complete sense.

‘The way I see it you have two choices,’ her voice was soft and sad, and Loki hated that he had upset her over his own problems. ‘One, you keep going as you have been. You let Thor ignore you and you return to England in a few days but you’re no closer to fixing the problem than before.’ Loki’s heart sank slightly, he knew that that was what he would have naturally have been inclined to do. ‘Or two,’ Darcy continued, ‘you confront Thor about why he invited you. Then you go and see your parents, in person. What they did wasn’t right but you were in the wrong too by letting it go this long without any action. They won’t be about forever, you know.’

There was something in her tone that spoke of understanding. True understanding, Loki thought, from experience. And then a cryptic remark Jane had made while they were waiting for Darcy earlier suddenly made sense. We’re Darcy’s family.

‘I’m sorry, Darcy. I didn’t know either,’ he whispered, her blue eyes still holding his, ‘I never would have...’

‘Don’t,’ she warned, her eyes hardening slightly and her hand moving from his hair to rest lightly on his arm, ‘don’t pity the poor orphan. And don’t take my advice out of guilt. Just take it into consideration and think about what you want to do next.’

It surprised him, how similar their thoughts were. They were both stubborn and proud creatures, he had known that from the first meeting, but Darcy’s determination not to let him pity her was astonishing. She was so strong, Loki thought, much stronger than he was. She had said her piece, given her advice without judgements or conditions. She had allowed him another glimpse of herself in that moment, the real Darcy that was not quite hidden but sometimes obscured by her sarcasm and wit.

The heat from her hand felt like it was searing Loki but he still didn’t pull away. ‘I will,’ he promised, ‘Thank you, Darcy, for everything.’

Her answering smile was tired but genuine. ‘Any time.’

They sat like that for quite some time, both lost in their own thoughts but retaining that connection. Neither of them looked away though Loki’s mind was occupied with other things. There was something comforting and familiar about just being like this. Darcy had no expectations of him, she did not need him to amuse her every second as Thor did, neither did she expect him to be attentive and charming as Jane seemed to. She seemed perfectly content to simply let him be himself: sarcastic but polite, yet somewhat antisocial.

Sometime later Loki noticed that her eyes were starting to close of their own accord. He glanced at the clock, it was two in the morning.

He stood and pulled her to her feet as gently as he could. ‘Come on, Darcy,’ he said, ‘let’s get you into bed.’

She looked up at him bleary eyes. It was, he noted with growing discomfort, a credit to her that her words had been able to distract his attention from her cleavage throughout the entirety of their conversation. She was still on her knees on the floor and Loki tried to block out the illicit images which threatened to flood his brain. But Darcy was a very beautiful woman and he was only human.

‘Um, Loki, just in case you’ve forgotten, this isn’t my apartment.’

Despite her protests she sounded groggy and Loki forced a smile. She might have been complaining but she allowed him to help her up and followed he gently placed one arm around her back to guide her down the hall. Even though his thoughts were far from gentlemanly Loki was determined to ignore them. Darcy deserved better than the perverse fantasies that his dirty mind cooked up. Was he really any better than those men she tried to avoid in the bar that first night? Yes, Loki thought, because he would fight the attraction he felt towards her for the sake of the friendship that they now had. He could ignore the allure of her curves and her red lips. He had to. Because it was becoming obvious to him that no one had ever quite understood him like Darcy Lewis did.

‘I know,’ he said gently, steering her into the guest room, ‘but you’re dead on your feet. You can have my bed for the night, darling.’

He didn’t know where the name came from but Darcy was apparently too tired to correct him. ‘I have a final tomorrow.’

‘I’ll wake you up early and we can go back to your apartment so you can change and get ready.’ He took her answering hum as an acceptance. ‘Now,’ he said, setting her down on the edge of his bed while he searched through his clothes, ‘I just need to find you something to sleep in.’ He quickly located a clean t-shirt and the pair of running shorts that he had packed with good but as-yet-not-realised intentions and placed them gently into her hands while he left the room so that Darcy could change, grabbing his own nightclothes before he did so. He desperately wished that he could have taken a shower (and preferably a cold one) but Loki knew that Darcy, tired as she may be, would wonder why the water was running at two a.m.. She might even ask him in the morning and that was a conversation he wanted to actively avoid.

Well, you see Darcy, that damned dress made me react to you like a pubescent schoolboy.

Yes, Loki thought, definitely a conversation to avoid. And it wasn’t even the dress, he thought with a sigh. It was just her.

By the time came back from the bathroom Darcy had left the door to the guest bedroom lying open.

‘Is everything alright?’ he asked, poking his head through the doorframe. The dress in question was hanging up and Darcy had already buried into the duvet. ‘Yeah, just waiting for you to get your ass into bed.’

Loki’s voice caught. ‘I… the sofa…’

Darcy merely muttered something about him being a giant in comparison to the ‘couch’ and that he didn’t mind sleeping with her last night. Loki couldn’t help but blush slightly at her words. But that had been an accident and this would be deliberate. Ultimately, though, he conceded that she had a point. He was too tall for the sofa. He slipped into the bed beside her, close but not quite touching and tried to fall asleep.

Loki had tried to tell himself that he was winning against his attraction to Darcy Lewis. But lying beside her and feeling the heat radiating off her body, hearing her quiet, rhythmic breathing and aware of his body’s reaction to her closeness made him think otherwise. He stayed as close to the edge of the bed as possible and tried to ignore his powerful (and painful) reaction to seeing her sleeping in his clothes, in his bed.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Crack the Shutters

Darcy

The beeping of an alarm jolted Darcy out of her dreams. Dreams that becoming increasingly centred on one man.

Needless to say it usually took a cup of coffee and a shower before Darcy was really awake.

Why was she so warm? She opened her eyes.

Screw that, why didn’t she know where she was?

And why the hell was someone’s arm around her waist? Darcy had never had a one night stand in her life and she certainly didn’t remember anything about last night that…

Wait, she knew that arm. The pale skin stretched tight against the lean muscles and tendons.

Twisting her head around slightly she sighed quietly when her eyes took in black hair and a sharp jaw.

‘We have got to stop doing this,’ she muttered to the still sleeping Loki. She knew that this wasn’t good for her willpower. She had sworn that she and Loki could only ever be friends but waking up in his arms for the second morning in a row…

Oh crap.

Darcy glanced at the beeping alarm clock. Eight a.m. Her final was in an hour.

‘Loki,’ she muttered, shaking his shoulders, ‘wake up.’

‘Darcy,’ he mumbled, nuzzling his face into her shoulder. ‘Too early.’

Any other time she would find the action unbearably cute and somewhat confusing given that she didn’t quite know if he was attracted to her or not. As it was…

‘Loki!’

Her screech seemed to finally wake him and he jolted upright, releasing his hold on her to do so. He looked even better this morning than he had yesterday. How was that even possible? All rumpled and sexy and… stop it!

His brow furrowed in confusion. ‘Darcy?’

She took the opportunity to scramble out of bed as fast as she could, calling over her shoulder as she went. ‘We slept in, my final’s in an hour!’

She heard his apology for forgetting to set an alarm from beyond the bathroom door as she stripped off her clothes and started the shower. ‘Can I borrow something to wear?’

Five minutes later she was grabbing the pile of clothes Loki had left outside the bathroom door for her. She made do with her own underwear (not ideal, but it had been clean last night) and pulled the pair of jeans that obviously belonged to Jane over her legs before she picked up the shirt. It was plain black but it was obviously a man’s. She pulled it on regardless, it would have to do. All Jane’s shirts would have been too small on her anyway. Darcy blushed as she wondered if that was why Loki had given her one of his own. It would have to do, she told herself, it would have to do. After all, she was going to sit in a dingy hall and write a paper, not parade through the middle of town on a carnival raft.

She silently thanked any deity listing that she had thrown a hairbrush in her bag last night as she pulled her still damp mane into a quick bun. Her habit for wearing hair bobbles around her wrist was probably frowned at by the snobs at dinner last night but right now it was pretty damn useful.

She was halfway through wrestling her hair into submission while walking when she stopped at the sight of Loki, dressed in last night’s clothes, putting two plates of toast and two coffees on the dining table.

‘Sit,’ he said firmly, ‘I’ll drive you to your exam after you eat.’

Darcy had been planning to rush and catch the bus but this sounded like a much better plan. She sat and began to wolf the simple breakfast into her, mentally running over all the things she needed to remember for this paper.

She was trying to recall a quote from some obscure literary critic when Loki’s hand reached across the table to squeeze hers. ‘You’ll be fine.’

She smiled weakly, ‘Thanks, and thanks for the shirt.’

Darcy could have sworn that his cheeks coloured, just a little. ‘It’s nothing compared to the thanks I owe you for last night, Darcy.’

She shrugged, ‘That’s what friends are for, Loki. I’m always here if you need me.’ And how she wished that he needed her the way she wanted him to.

A short while later Darcy was back to teasing him. Loki drove like a grandpa, she realised as he taxied her across town, but it actually made a nice change from Jane’s near-homicidal driving. She thanked him anyway and was just about to exit the car when he stopped her.

‘How long is your exam?’

‘Uh, two hours. Why?’

He smiled at her, ‘I’ll see you back here.’

Darcy beamed at him, ‘Awesome, thanks.’ Before she could question it she leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. ‘See you later.’

She almost didn’t hear his call of ‘break a leg’ as she hurried to the hall. She begged a pen off a fellow student from her Sexism and Writing class and tried to put all thoughts her adopted, raven haired, frickin’ lickable, quasi-taxi-driver out of her head for the next two hours. She was distracted right up until the exam started but as soon as Darcy read the question she grinned with glee.

Oh yeah, she so had this.

Two hours, twenty sides of paper and an extremely sore wrist later she walked out of the exam and found Tony to return his pen. To be honest, Darcy wasn’t exactly sure why the engineering student was taking the class in the first place. It probably had to do with the lines he was able to pull with women both during and after the class itself. He had tried it with Darcy (and she had laughed in his face) but they had continued to hang out occasionally. They weren’t friends but they sometimes went for coffee, studied together in the library and so on. So it surprised Darcy when Tony casually told her that ‘some dude who looks like Dracula’ was checking her out.

Darcy grinned but didn’t turn. ‘Dark hair, really tall, probably wearing some combination of green and black?’

Tony cocked his head slightly, ‘Jeans and a blue shirt.’

Ooh, Darcy had never seen in him jeans before. She turned to look at him before she spontaneously combusted with anticipation of seeing him dressed casually for once. Not that he didn’t rock the formal thing (he really, really did) but it would be a nice change.

She found him leaning up against the side of his car, obviously waiting for her to finish talking. He raised an eyebrow when he met her gaze and Darcy knew it was his way of asking whether she was ready to go or whether she needed another minute. She beamed back at him before turning back to Tony.

‘That’s Loki. And he’s way sexier than Dracula.’ And he was, he was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a lighter blue shirt. Darcy had idly noticed that he had left the first few buttons opened and that he had tucked a pair of sunglasses into the v-shape that it left. She really was starting to think that he obsession with his neck was just a little bit unhealthy. Maybe it was Darcy who warranted to comparison to a vampire. She suddenly had the mad urge to accuse him of standing in the shade because he might sparkle in the sun. Damn, if he had been the lead in that stupid film Darcy would have listened to every word instead of throwing popcorn at swooning teenagers while Jane swooned right along with them. But she was digressing.

Tony merely shrugged at her assessment. ‘And is he the reason you’re wearing a man’s shirt?’

Huh, she had forgotten about that. ‘It’s a long story,’ she hedged.

‘Uh-huh,’ Tony rolled his eyes disbelievingly, ‘do you want to come out and grab come drinks with us later? We’re meeting at the union bar at eight.’

Darcy bit her lip in thought. It was nice of Tony to invite her but Loki was only here for another few days. She knew that she shouldn’t get even more attached to him that she was already but she would worry about that after he left. She wondered idly if she was turning into Jane, choosing a man over everyone else. But at the end of the day she wasn’t really all that friendly with the rest of Tony’s engineering friends (one particularly unsettling guy had stopped to talk to them in the library one day and Darcy had had nightmares about pirates for weeks). She didn’t even know Tony all that well outside of his sarcastic comments and innuendos in class. It would be more than a little awkward and she would much rather spend time with ‘Dracula’ (she shook her head, that wasn’t an accurate description at all; Loki really was far too hot to be Dracula). She told Tony that she had other plans and, though she didn’t specify, Darcy could have sworn that she saw Tony’s eyes flick over her shoulder with a look of irritation.

Tony was a great guy, he really was. He was funny, clever, easy on the eyes. But there was something very fickle about him. Maybe fickle wasn’t the right word. He was unsettled. Despite her glib comments and her sharp tongue Darcy had always been mature for her age. And, yes, that did tend to go out the window a little when she liked a guy but for the most part she found it hard to relate to most people her own age. It was why she counted Jane (and, by extension, Thor) as her best friends. Tony was a great guy, but Darcy Lewis was not the girl who could finally tame his flirtatious ways. She needed someone older, someone more stable but who still retained a sense of interest. Of wit and intelligence and…

Damn, Darcy though. She had get Loki out of her head. As she said goodbye to Tony and bounced across the street to meet her personal taxi driver, however, she found that she really didn’t want to. ‘Hi.’

‘Hello to you, too,’ he said with a soft chuckle. ‘I take it the exam went well.’

‘Yup,’ she said, popping the ‘p’ with unnecessary enthusiasm. ‘The question was awesome. All I have to do now is wait for the results and then think about getting a “real job”.’

‘What about your doctorate?’ he asked with a slight frown.

Darcy sort of forgot she had told him that. She hadn’t even told Jane she had applied for it. Probably because she stood next to no hope of actually getting the scholarship. ‘I haven’t heard back yet,’ she said with a shrug, ‘so I guess it means I’m probably not getting in.’

‘They would be mad not to take you,’ Loki said in a surprising show of solidarity, ‘you would be a great lecturer.’

He opened her car door for her and Darcy smiled. Such a gentleman. ‘I guess we’ll see,’ she muttered quietly to herself as he walked around the car. He slid into his own seat and Darcy waited until he was buckled in before she asked him what he had done with his morning.

‘I took your advice,’ he said quietly, his eyes fixed steadily on the road. ‘I rang my parents and asked if I could visit, and I talked to Thor and persuaded him to talk to me. Just us.’

Darcy stared at him, her mouth open a little. ‘Wow.’ He looked a little uneasy and Darcy lightly placed her hand on top of his where it rested on the gear change. ‘That’s really great, Loki.’

‘Yes,’ he said, still keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead even they came to stop at the traffic lights, ‘well, I was wondering. Would you come with me tomorrow, to see my parents?’

He needed reassurance, Darcy thought. He needed someone to stand by his side and tell him he was doing the right thing. But there was something else he needed more: he needed to know that he didn’t need her help. ‘Loki,’ she began and she could hear the hesitancy in her own voice, ‘you know I would love to…’

‘Why do I sense there’s a “but” coming?’ His voice didn’t hold its usual playfulness, it sounded cold, empty.

‘I think you need to do this by yourself,’ she said quietly, squeezing his hand just a little tighter. ‘But if you need someone to talk to after…’ he still looked the same, no change in his expression. They were both silent as he pulled up beside her apartment. ‘Loki, if you want me to go…’

‘No,’ he said softly and turned to look at her for the first time. ‘I’m sorry, you’re right. This is something I have to do alone.’ He turned his hand over and intertwined his fingers with her own. Darcy fought the blush trying to work its way into her cheeks. Heat flooded through her at such an innocent touch and his warm, genuine smile made her heart beat in staccato. ‘Would you mind if I called by tomorrow evening?’

Darcy shook her head vigorously, ‘I’ll even stretch to some Earl Grey.’

He squeezed his finger between his own before releasing Darcy’s hand. ‘You don’t…’

‘I want to,’ she interrupted. ‘Do you want to come up for a while now?’

‘No, I’d better not,’ he said, looking apologetic. ‘Thor’s waiting at his apartment and I think that conversation is already long overdue.’

Darcy smiled encouragingly. Even though she wanted to beg him to spend some time with her she knew he needed this. It was why he had come, after all, not to satisfy Darcy’s need for intelligent company and fuel her romantic (and slightly naughtier) fantasies. ‘I guess I’ll see you tomorrow evening then.’ She reached across the console and gave him an incredible awkward, warm, wonderful hug while whispering in his ear, ‘you’ll be fine, too.’ She exited the car and waved as she walked into the building, not noticing the crease between his eyebrows as he drove off.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Before the Worst

Loki

The conversation he was about to have was long overdue. It had been five years and, as much as he tried to pretend otherwise Loki was still hurt over Thor’s reaction to the news that Loki was adopted. He sat in his rented car clutching the steering wheel tightly and trying very hard not to turn it around and go back to Darcy.

Utterly pathetic, he thought to himself, you’ve known the girl for a few days and you’re already semi-dependant on her. He had never had so strong a reaction, a connection with anyone, never mind a beautiful woman. And that was why he couldn’t let his appreciation of her looks ruin their friendship. They might have only known each other for a short time but Darcy’s advice was what was prompting Loki to finally face up to what he had been running away from for five years.

He had run away, back to England and even there he hadn’t been able to escape his demons. He had tried to find out who his biological parents had been. He had tracked hospital records up and down the country, looked at missing persons reports, everything. He had not made contact with Nicholas and Frigga for over two years, despite numerous pleading phone messages and letters.

It was finally a birthday card (on what he now knew to be the day he had been allowed to go home with the Odinsons, not the day of his birth) that had broken his silence. A simple card with a short message written in Frigga’s hand.

You are our son, we love you and we miss you. This date twenty eight years ago was one of the happiest days of our lives.

He still had the card, tucked away in his filing cabinet at home. It had been the start of a series of letters, emails and phone calls that had yet to lead up to an actual meeting. But his parents had made the effort, Thor had not.

Loki wasn’t entirely sure that he could ever forgive him for that. More than anything it angered him that Thor had simply written him off.

But he would never know until they talked.

Loki sighed and exited the car, trudging his way up the stairs to Thor’s apartment.

In all honesty he had expected Thor to have forgotten or merely ignored his request but Loki found his brother sitting, waiting patiently.

He lowered himself into the seat opposite him cautiously. It was several minutes before Thor initiated conversation.

‘Loki, I know it’s not what you want to hear but I really am sorry for what I said to you all those years ago.’

Well, Loki thought, it was a start. ‘Tell me why,’ he said simply, trying to remain calm and listen to Thor’s side of the story before he made any further judgements regarding his brother’s actions.

Thor shrugged as if it were obvious. ‘I was jealous.’

Whatever Loki had been expected it wasn’t that. Thor was jealous of him? Thor had been Loki’s idol and his arch nemesis simultaneously when they were growing up. As young children he had been their father’s favourite while Loki fought for his approval but their real rivalry had begun as teenagers. They had been sixteen and twelve when they made the move across the Atlantic and Thor had immediately become the star attraction in their new home. He was tall, tanned, athletic, extroverted, and those traits gained him no shortage of friends and admirers. Loki was forever in his shadow, tall but thin and pale, and shy, almost painfully so. He had a far harder time approaching new people, especially ones already enamoured with the more sociable of the brothers. Thor was everything he wanted to be and yet everything he detested.

It had been especially hard on him as a teenager when Loki realised that the only girls who ever showed interest in him were doing so to get closer to his brother. It seemed slightly trivial now but Thor had taunted Loki about it when they were young adults. It was part of the reason that he had applied to go to university in England. There, he had reasoned, he would be away from his brother’s shadow and he would be able to be his own man.

It hadn’t quite worked out that like in reality, however. Loki had soon found that he had spent so many years as an introverted and quiet soul that he had trouble breaking out of the habit. He made friends (with some effort), and had maintained a close friendship with one of the lads from university, now working for the British government. But they were both introverted men and Loki found that he had no-one he could count as a true confidant, someone he could share his darkest secrets and fears with.

Removed from Thor, Loki also found that women approached him more. He dated from time to time, but no woman ever lasted more than a few months. The longest relationship he had been in was a year and it had eventually petered out after Loki had come home for the fateful visit five years ago. The distance he maintained and his own insecurities were exacerbated by the revelations of his adoption and since then Loki had never truly become close to a woman. Until now… He willed his thoughts away from dark haired literature students and back to the conversation in hand.

He still didn’t quite understand what Thor was saying. ‘You were jealous?’ Loki asked incredulously. ‘Of what?’

Thor rolled his eyes at him, ‘You have always been smarter than me, Loki. You know that. You went to Cambridge.’

Loki stared at his brother. He could not recall a time previously when Thor had looked ashamed, truly ashamed. But now he was talking to the carpet and his cheeks had just the slightest flush of colour. Could it be that he was really telling the truth?

‘I don’t understand,’ Loki confessed.

Thor sighed, ‘You never needed anyone, Loki,’ he started, his voice hesitant, as if he were trying to explain something very complicated and very painful. ‘Even as a child I remember you being smart, independent. You didn’t need friends to help you the same way I did. You excelled at everything you put your mind to but it was like you never really needed anyone else.’ Loki thought he even detected a hint of pain in Thor’s voice but he didn’t comment on it, letting him keep going. ‘I mean, you were able to do my homework when I went into high school. It was humiliating, having to ask my little brother for help with things I didn’t understand. I was always jealous of your intelligence, your independence.’

‘We remember our childhood very differently,’ Loki commented bitterly, ‘just because I didn’t need friends didn’t mean I didn’t want them. But it’s hard being as perfect as your older brother.’ Thor looked taken back by the harshness in his voice but Loki continued anyway, it needed to be said. ‘Do you really think I wanted to be alone? You think it was easy having people befriend me because you were popular,’ he spit the word out as if it were poison, ‘do you? You were the one father doted on, you were the one surrounded by people who admired you, not me.’

‘Yes,’ Thor argued, ‘but do you not think mother played favourites with you?’

‘Mother knew I needed reassurance,’ he spat back, ‘she knew that I always came second. I grew up as the quintessential second son and then when it came out that I was adopted you…’

‘Were relieved.’

Loki saw red. Darcy had been right, he hadn’t realised just how much rage and hurt he had been suppressing. ‘Do you have any idea what that did to me?’ he shouted, on his feet before he made a conscious decision to stand. ‘I needed your reassurance that I was still a part of this family and instead you laughed it off like it was a wonderful joke.’

‘Loki…’

‘I flew back to England and nearly threw my entire career out the window because of you,’ he snarled, ‘because everything I thought I ever knew was a lie. My life, my family, my heritage. Part of the reason I was ever hired by the university to teach northern European history in the first place was because of my family connections. My blood connections,’ he corrected, ‘but now I know that that’s all a lie. But how could you possibly understand what it’s like to have the world ripped out from under you? To be left standing with nothing and no one?

‘All I ever wanted,’ he said quietly, viciously, ‘was to be your equal. But that was never possible, not when we were never brothers to begin with.’

Thor stood opposite him and Loki stiffened slightly. ‘Loki, you misunderstand me. When I said that, maybe I didn’t not express it how I wished or maybe your mind was too clouded with the revelations you had been given but…’ he trailed off, looking at him intently. ‘I will not deny that I was relieved, but if this is truly what you think of me then you have not taken my words as I meant them.’

‘I do not see any other possible meaning you could have hoped to give them.’

‘Please,’ Thor said, gesturing towards the seat. Loki sat down again awkwardly and waited for Thor to resume speaking. ‘You were always quick witted and sharp, Loki. I’m thirty-five years old and you’ve seen that I can’t even make lasagne.’ Loki supposed that was true, but he didn’t really see where this was going. ‘When I thought you were my brother by blood I always wondered if there was something wrong with me. Why I wasn’t as good as you. You could always adapt to anything and a small part of me always wondered why I wasn’t able to do that. Don’t you see, Loki? When we found out I was relieved that I didn’t have to live up to you anymore. You were twenty-five, a graduate of one of the best universities in Europe and one of the youngest people ever to be offered a job as a university lecturer. Don’t think I didn’t see the article that you sent mother and father. How could I ever be expected to live up to the standard of my younger brother? But knowing that we had different blood, different genes?’ Loki was actually shocked that Thor knew what genes were (and that was half his argument, Loki surmised) but he guessed that was Jane’s influence. ‘That took the pressure of me to live up to you academically. We both know that if I wasn’t an athlete I never would have been able to go to college. And then there was my brother, the PhD.’

Thor paused for breath and Loki took a moment to consider what had been said. Was it really possible that he had been so wrong about Thor’s meaning? With hindsight what he was saying certainly made sense. He had blamed Thor for their differences for all these years but maybe Loki was partly responsible too.

‘I believe,’ he uttered quietly, ‘that maybe we are both at fault. We certainly never understood each other, but neither of us ever made any effort to either.’

Thor nodded, agreeing. ‘You are right. We are two very different people, but you are still my brother, Loki, and always will be. Over two decades of love does not simply disappear. Not for me, at least.’

At those words, so simple and yet so comforting, Loki felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Thor was waiting for a response. ‘Nor me. But it will take time before we can be as we were once.’

Thor’s eyebrows furrowed in a way that Loki knew to be very similar to one of his own expressions. The comparison was somewhat comforting. ‘I do not want things to be as they were, Loki, I want them to be better.’

For the first time throughout the conversation Loki gave a small smile. ‘They will be, we just need time.’ He would not pretend that everything was all fine and dandy between them now but he knew that time would be the only thing that could heal this wound that had been eating away at him.

‘Time,’ Thor agreed, ‘and more visits. Although, given your feelings for Miss Lewis I don’t see that being a problem.’

His feelings for Darcy didn’t matter, Loki thought sullenly. ‘What I feel about Darcy is irrelevant.’

‘So you admit that you do have feelings for her?’

Loki had no idea how he had walked into that one so blindly. ‘Yes,’ he admitted, knowing it was pointless to deny it now, ‘she is a beautiful woman who I am extremely fond of, who just so happens to be almost ten years my junior and live half a world away. I am realistic enough to know that nothing can ever happen.’

‘Realistic?’ Thor asked, unusually intuitive, ‘Or scared? Because I have never seen Darcy so open around anyone before, not even Jane. I would not doubt that she has feelings for you, brother.’

Loki did not want to consider the possibility that Thor could be right. All that would lead to was disappointment, either when he had to leave or when she laughed at him for being a dirty old pervert.

He refused to talk about it, telling Thor that he was driving the two hours to see their parents the next day and that he needed sleep in order to do so. The next morning Thor had tried to reopen the topic over breakfast (the first Loki had shared with his brother since he arrived) and he had remained silent.

When he arrived at his parents’ house his mother had clung to him for a good five minutes before he managed to get over the threshold. After they sat down it was hours before any of them got up. There was much to be discussed but, much like his relationship with Thor, the gap was beginning to mend.

When his mother invited him to stay the night Loki had hesitated. He had packed all of his things into the rental car this morning, but that had been in anticipation of accidentally falling asleep at Darcy’s again. The mere thought of her caused his heart to leap in his chest. And that was why he had to break his promise to see her. Because, if he did, it would be even harder for him to board the plane and fly back to a place which no longer really felt like his home.

He was being realistic, he told himself, in his feelings for her. Nothing could ever have happened between them.

But even though he had never told her when he was leaving or what plane he was boarding, Loki still looked out for her dark curls as he waited in line at the airport. And as the wheels finally left the ground he couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling that Darcy Lewis had forever ruined his chance of happiness without her.  



	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - 4:12

Darcy

The night that Loki spent with his brother Darcy and Jane had spent also repairing the cracks in their friendship after Darcy’s epic putdown of Jane at dinner the previous night. The girls had had their fights before but this was different. It was, however, still within the realms of Ben and Jerry and some bad television to fix.

‘So, are you still going to try and tell me there’s nothing going on between you and Loki?’

Darcy sighed. She had been waiting for Jane to bring the subject up but she honestly expected to get at least another fifteen minutes worth of David Tennant and his blue box before that happened. Not that she was really paying much attention. The dark haired man with the British accent on the screen was no match to the one she was worrying about. She wondered how his conversation with Thor was going.

‘We’re friends,’ Darcy tried, ‘I think. I mean, I’ve only known the dude for four days.’

‘Yeah, but you’ve spent a lot of time with him,’ Jane pointed out, ‘and I fell in love with Thor after only two days.’

Darcy felt her mouth drop open. ‘Love? I’m not…’

Oh crap.

Try as she may Darcy couldn’t bring herself to deny Jane’s implication. Was it really possible to fall in love with someone so fast?

But Loki wasn’t just anyone, he was Loki. He was funny and gorgeous and…

Oh hell.

She was in love with him. Darcy had put her feelings down to some sort of abstract feelings of attraction (he was certainly a fine specimen of a man) but it didn’t explain why she was so nervous about his conversation with Thor. Why she really wished she had said that she would go with him to his parents, even though she knew she had been right in her decision. Why when she was away from him he kept creeping back into her thoughts. She had completely missed all the signs that she and Loki could never be just friends, not on her part at least.

Maybe it was because what she felt for him and how she acted was so different to how Jane and Thor behaved. They really were sort of obsessed with one another. Darcy preferred to think of herself as a functional romantic. Loki wasn’t the only thing on her mind but he was always there, just waiting for something to trigger thoughts of him. Well, she thought, turning back to look at the Scot who didn’t quite compare to him, maybe she was a little obsessed.

Jane was looking at her funny. ‘Only crazy people fall in love that fast, Jane.’

The older woman looked slightly offended as she threw her pillow at Darcy but she merely gave a small smile. ‘You can deny it all you like, Darcy, but I’ve seen the way you look at him.’

It was time to pull out the big guns. Darcy really didn’t want to discuss her newly realised feelings with Jane right now, not until she had had time to come to terms with them herself. ‘What way do I look at him? Is it really obvious that I want him to bang me against the nearest solid surface?’

Jane effectively dropped the subject out of sheer mortification and Darcy was left to brood while she pretended to concentrate on ‘wibbely-wobbely, timey-wimey stuff’. Even when Jane went to bed a few hours later Darcy was still thinking about it. She was in love, with Loki, and he was leaving in a few days. To go home, back to his job, and his life, and…

Suddenly everything that had been keeping her from admitting her true feelings to herself earlier gave her the push she needed. Loki was leaving but, before he did, Darcy had to tell him how she felt. She would tell him and then he would know. She had so many things that she wished she had told her parents before they died. She had been sixteen and they had been dropping her off to school before going to work together. No one had expected the drunk driver, especially not at eight thirty in the morning. Their lives were over in the blink of an eye and there were so many things that Darcy wished she had told them that morning on the way to school instead of sitting in mopey silence, not quite awake until she jumped out of the car at the school gates. If their death had taught her anything it was that sometimes you didn’t get a second chance, you had to say what you needed to before it was too late.

She woke the next morning refreshed and determined. She went to the store and bought Earl Grey tea. She cleaned the apartment from top to bottom.

Darcy had no expectations that Loki would feel for her as she did for him. She thought he was attracted to her, but for all she knew she could be entirely wrong. It didn’t matter, she tried to tell herself, he still needed to know. She didn’t want to live in the shadow of what might have been later because she didn’t have the courage or the conviction to do anything about it now.

Her day passed in a blur and before Darcy realised it was evening and she was anxiously awaiting his arrival. Jane had already left to spend the night with Thor and Darcy was pacing the kitchen with a restless, nervous energy. Loki hadn’t specified what time he would be here at but Darcy imagined it had to be soon.

She tried to read but she was too distracted. She channel surfed and checked her email, twice. She walked down to the street and back up to the apartment to see if his car was here yet (wishful thinking). She even made herself a cup of his tea and attempted to drink it (and discovered that it tasted infinitely better black and with a heap of sugar) before sitting back down on the couch.

The last time Darcy could remember seeing displayed on the clock was 4:12 in the morning.

She woke up only three hours later and there was no sign that Loki had ever appeared.

Frowning, Darcy called Jane. She listened to the grumbling about the time of day and so on for a minute before asking her friend if Loki had gone back to Thor’s last night. One minute and an apparent check of the spare bedroom later Jane told her that he hadn’t. She called Darcy back a few minutes later to tell her that Loki had stayed with his parents and was already on a plane back to Britain.

‘He just… left?’

She couldn’t believe it. They were supposed to have more time; he was supposed to have come to her apartment last night. She knew he was leaving but he had never specified what day. He had never told her that it was so soon.

And Darcy couldn’t believe that he had left without saying goodbye.

Even though she had tried not to, she had to admit to herself that she had hoped he felt something for her. Why would he just leave?

The remainder of the Ben and Jerry’s later, Darcy also admitted to herself that she was pathetic and swore never to mock Jane again for being so head-over-heels in love with her Odinson brother. Darcy would never have that chance now.

She spent the next two days in a sort of haze. She filled out job applications, checked her mail several times a day to see if she had any word on the scholarship. She did the shopping for the apartment, she even spring cleaned the place (again).

She went out one evening to dinner with some of the girls from college before they went back home. She hung out with Jane another night and watched old films and ate popcorn. She even met Tony for coffee, though younger dark haired man didn’t comment when Darcy told him that Loki had gone back home. Then again, he didn’t start hitting on her either.

But she still missed him.

She knew she should be angry at Loki for leaving the way he did but somehow Darcy knew that he wouldn’t have done so without a reason. The unexpected knock on the door four days after he left pulled her from her thoughts and Darcy rushed to answer it. Desperately and illogically she hoped with would be him.

While Darcy would have said that she was friends with Thor she didn’t ever remember there being a time in which he had come round to their apartment solely to see her. He had, of course, waited with Darcy for Jane to get home from work or picked Darcy up from college on his way past but he had never sought her out.

Until now, apparently.

‘What’re you doing here?’ she asked, stepping aside to let him in anywhere. Darcy checked the hall but Jane was nowhere in sight. She hadn’t expected her to be. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, after all.

‘Am I not allowed to come and talk to my friend?’ he asked. Darcy raised an eyebrow and Thor continued. ‘How have you been, Darcy?’

Well, since I realised that I’m in love with your brother and then he left without saying goodbye I’ve been moping and attempting to eat my weight in Phish Food. How about you?

Darcy shrugged, ‘I’m okay. The more important question is how are you? How did the big visit go and when are you finally popping the question to Jane?’

Thor obviously sensed her attempts at redirection. ‘I assume Loki told you about my plans,’ she tried not to react to his name, she really did. ‘Our talk went well, we are on better terms than we have ever been, I believe. And I am proposing at dinner tomorrow night but that is not what I came here for…’

‘Look, Thor,’ she interrupted, trying to be as polite as possible. ‘Unless he didn’t show up to say goodbye because of some emergency then I really, really don’t want to talk about your brother.’ Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. ‘I just,’ she sighed, revealing her darkest secret to a man who couldn’t usually keep up with her to save his life but who she still considered one of her closest friends. ‘I really miss him.’

His grin nearly hurt to look at. ‘Well then, Darcy, what we shall talk about is what you are going to be doing two days from now.’


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – With or Without You

Loki

His students were too polite, Loki thought as he finished off his penultimate lecture of the week. It was ‘sir’ this and ‘Dr Odinson’ that. He missed the irreverence he had grown used to from Darcy. Damn it all to hell, he just missed her.

He had only known the girl for a week and yet she was in his thoughts everywhere he turned. He compared the quiet giggles of his female students to her loud laughter. He reviewed papers on Norse mythology and remembered when she had made him choke on his water. He talked to his parents on the telephone and remembered that it was Darcy who had encouraged him to try and mend things with his family.

And oh did he miss her.

He missed everything about her. Her smile, her laugh, her self-consciousness. He missed her caring nature and her random topics of conversation. He missed her wit and charm and intelligence.

And it was playing havoc on him in the week since he had returned. He was barely interested in his lectures, found little time for the people he had once considered friends but he now knew to be nothing but pale imitations of the camaraderie and the depth of feelings he had for the petite brunette who lived thousands of miles away. Their conversation was staid and dull and always about the same things. People, places, things. Never ideas, never opinions or anecdotes.

How, in the space that he had known her, had Darcy Lewis managed to show him how unbearably dull his life was. And yet, when Loki had been with her he felt anything but. She had challenged him intellectually, stimulated him socially and had helped him start on the path to repairing his broken relationship with his family.

And he hadn’t even realised at the time that he wasn’t falling for her. He was already in love with her, and probably had been since that first evening. How ironic that he would only come to that conclusion when she was so far away and any sort of realisation of those feelings was a near impossibility.

That was even assuming that she felt anything for him in return. Loki simply didn’t know. She had been so free and open with him from the very beginning that he didn’t know what it looked like when Darcy was attracted to someone. For all he knew she could simply view him as Thor’s brother and, therefore, a presence she was going to have to endure for the time being.

But, then again… She had approached him, before she knew of his connections to her friends. She had gone out of her way to research mythology just to hold conversations with him. She had bought Earl Grey tea to keep at her apartment in case he visited and she had listened to his problems when she had no obligation to.

Loki had always thought her to be an attractive young woman. He had fought very hard against his observations of such. She had all the beauty of youth and he was eight years her senior. But it hadn’t stopped him dreaming about her blue eyes and red lips in front of his own since he returned to England. And before, if he was being honest with himself. He tried to reason that his (highly graphic) dreams about Darcy made him a dirty old man. Even though he knew that he loved her.

How had that even happened? He asked himself. I only knew her for a matter of days. But enough time to turn his life into complete chaos.

He didn’t even have any way to contact her. He had left so suddenly, never revealing to her that he was going. In a way he had thought that it would be easier like that, to simply walk out of her life. Loki had never accounted for the fact that he might miss her. That he might find his days unbearable without her. How had he become so pathetic.

And any chance he ever stood with her was probably scuppered now, he thought. He had promised to see her and then he had never appeared. Walking onto that plane the next day had been one of the hardest things he had ever done but if he had woken up beside Darcy that morning he didn’t know if he would have had the strength to go at all.

He really should have known that something beyond friendship was at stake.

He sighed to himself as he asked the students to leave their papers on the desk before they exited the lecture hall. He knew that he had bored them all out of their minds today. He was usually enthusiastic about his work but a combination of a lack of sleep and his revelations about his true feelings for the vivacious American had sapped all of his energy of late. As the students milled past him, dropping their assignments beside him Loki leaned back on the edge of the desk (let them worry about avoiding his long legs). He would have sat down behind it but he had a very distinct feeling that it would result in him banging his head repeatedly off said desk. Instead, he settled for pinching the bridge of his nose as he heard the final students drop their papers and leave. He was pathetic, so very pathetic.

‘Dude, that lecture? Sucked.’

Loki felt his eyes widening as he tried to reconcile what his eyes were seeing with his muddled mind. ‘D-Darcy?’

She was here, standing a few feet away from him. She was wringing her hands and Loki realised that he had never seen her look so nervous.

‘How did you… What are you doing here?’

Her blue eyes met his and he saw nerves and fear and desperation and maybe, just maybe, a tiny spark of hope. ‘I missed you.’

That was all he needed. Loki was in front of her in two strides, pulling her into his arms. Her lips met his without hesitation and he revelled in the feel of her pressed against him. She tasted like mint and she smelt like the spicy perfume he remembered. He knew his kiss was far from gentle, his disbelief and desperation spilling over, but Darcy responded almost immediately, her hands gripping his shoulders tightly and her mouth pliant and wiling under his.

He needed to know why she was here, what she expected of him. He wanted to ask but his mouth wouldn’t comply. ‘I’ve been miserable since I came back,’ he whispered instead, revealing his darkest secrets to her, ‘you’re all I’ve been able to think about.’

He had laid out his heart, Loki thought, and trusted that the woman he had fallen in love with wouldn’t trample it. But he was still worried, until she slapped him. Hard.

‘Then why the hell didn’t you let me say goodbye? You just left! No, “sorry, Darcy, I have to go home now” or “don’t worry, Darcy, I’ll be in touch”. Nothing. No way of contacting you, no phone or address or email. And who doesn’t have Facebook? Seriously?’ That was more like the Darcy he remembered, Loki thought with a small smile. ‘Don’t you dare smirk at me, Loki Odinson!’ she raged, pulling his tie so that he had to bend to meet her gaze. ‘If I’ve been all you can think about then why didn’t you do something about it?’

‘I wanted to,’ he said quietly, voicing his fears, ‘but I didn’t know if you felt for me as I did for you.’

The anger seemed to drain from her face as she regarded him, incredulity taking its place. ‘What did you want me to do, pass you notes? Dear Loki, I like you. Do you like me? Please check yes or no. ‘Cause I can do that, if that’s what it takes to get it into your think head that I lo-like you.’ She paused, and then muttered to herself, ‘Oh, damn it, I’ve come this far,’ she relaxed her defensive position slightly, her shoulders lowering and her arms uncrossed, ‘I love you, Loki. I really hope I don’t have to spell it out any more than that.’

Relief. Sheer, blessed relief. ‘I- I love you too, Darcy.’

It was Darcy who made the first move this time, pulling him down by the tie again. This time however, their lips met and Loki could have written sonnets about the feel of her mouth on his. As it was, however, he was currently very, very distracted.

Her arms were wrapped around his neck and Loki could feel her soft curves against the lines of his own body. Her breasts pushed into his chest and his hands found purchase on her hips, pulling them closer to him with almost frenzied intensity. There was no room for him to be embarrassed about his obvious reaction to her, Loki thought, she was so close to him that he had to be aware of it. Darcy simply gasped into his mouth and tangled her hands in the back of his hair, trying to pull him even closer to her.

A throat clearing suddenly made Loki aware of his surroundings. One of his students had obviously just occupied their usual seat. Natasha Romanova’s stoic expression, however, gave nothing away as she continued to unpack her books from her front row seat. Loki hadn’t even heard her enter but as the rest of the class began to mill in the doors (apparently oblivious to what had transpired) Loki turned his attention back to Darcy.

‘I have to teach another class now,’ he explained with some frustration, ‘do you want to meet me here in an hour?’

Darcy smirked at him and Loki felt his stomach clench. What was she going to suggest? ‘Oh, no,’ she said, still smiling wickedly, ‘I’d much rather watch you work.’ He watched as she turned and (dragging a backpack that he hadn’t noticed before) plonked herself down into the seat beside Miss Romanova. Loki had to chuckle as the brash woman held her hand out and introduced herself as ‘the bane of Loki’s existence’. It was the first time all year that he had seen the Russian student smile.

He watched with fascination as Darcy settled herself in for the lecture, leaning back in her seat and grinning wickedly when he looked her way. ‘Yes, that’s not distracting at all,’ Loki muttered to himself as he set up his notes.

He flew through the lecture as quickly as he could and let the students go early, explaining with a laugh that he had a surprise visitor had flown in from the States and he had already kept her waiting long enough. Darcy smiled at that and, after gathering his own papers, he took her bag from her and led her through the university campus, her hand finding his as they walked side-by-side.

There was so much they needed to discuss, Loki thought with a frown. There was, however, one question that was pressing on his mind.

‘Darcy?’ He turned and found her already looking at him. ‘How did you get here?’ He could hear her voice in his head before she opened her mouth. ‘On a plane?’ He decided to qualify. ‘I mean, how did you afford it?’

He hadn’t thought it was possible for brash, loud, beautiful Darcy Lewis to look sheepish. ‘Um, Jane realised there was something wrong when I was moping about the apartment instead of celebrating finishing my finals. She put two and two together and told me to get in contact with you. I said I didn’t know how and she asked Thor for your address. He showed up at my door with flight tickets instead, said that I could consider it a birthday present.’

‘I thought you birthday was in October?’ Loki asked with some confusion.

‘But yours is tomorrow.’

He had never told her that. It must have been Thor, Loki thought. Had his brother really noticed the odd tension between Darcy and himself?

‘Well, it’s a very,’ he pulled her hand up for his mouth quickly and kissed the back of it, ‘very good present.’

She beamed at him. ‘I do have a confession, though.’ She looked up at him from under her eyelashes. That look was deadly, Loki mused, he would cross oceans on her say-so with that look. ‘I didn’t have the money to pay for a hotel, so I was thinking maybe you could put me up for a few days?’

Suddenly Loki couldn’t shake the image of how she would look lying on his bed, her dark curls spread across his cream sheets…

‘Loki?’

Apparently he had stopped walking, he noticed with embarrassment as he hurried to reassure Darcy that he was fine and he wouldn’t dream of her wasting money on accommodation.

‘I really missed you, you know,’ she said suddenly as they continued on the walk to his house. ‘It’s really going to suck when I have to go home again.’

‘Let’s enjoy it while you’re here, Darcy,’ he murmured softly as they approached the house, ‘you can worry about it when the time comes.’

And let me worry about it in the meantime.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Meant to Live

Darcy

‘I think you forgave me too easily,’ Loki whispered in her ear that night. They were lying in bed, Darcy wrapped in his arms and his hand caressing the skin of her stomach under her borrowed shirt. It was the one he had given her to wear the day of her final and Darcy knew that he had to recognise it, even though he had yet to comment.

‘There was nothing to forgive,’ she murmured back quietly, placing a gentle kiss to his jaw. ‘I knew there had to be a reason for what you did and there was. Just… don’t do it again. Please?’

She felt his answering hum under the hand that rested on his chest. She pressed herself a little closer and continued to kiss the skin of his neck and shoulders.

‘Darcy,’ his voice contained a warning that she so desperately wanted to ignore, ‘behave or I’ll put you in the spare room after all.’

She had fought him on that when they arrived at the house. They had already shared a bed and Darcy didn’t want to be apart from him a moment longer than necessary. She was only here for a week and she wanted to make every moment count. She was even planning on sneaking into most of his classes over the coming week, though he told her that some had already ended for summer.

‘You’re not making it very easy to “behave”,’ she told him, running her hand down his bare chest. ‘I mean, damn. If I you had come into the bar with no shirt on that first day I probably would have jumped you straight away.’

‘On the contrary, my dear,’ he said, gripping her hips tightly between his hands, ‘you seem to be the one making things… difficult.’ The slight shift of his hips made it obvious that ‘difficult’ hadn’t been what he really meant.

‘You’re the one grinding against me, darling.’ She mocked.

‘Yes,’ Loki answered his hands still travelling torturous patterns on her stomach and up to the edge of her ribs. ‘But you were the one who invited yourself to my house and wormed your way into my bed.’ He paused, pressing a sweet kiss to her temple. ‘And I like calling you “darling”. Unless you would prefer that I didn’t.’

‘No,’ Darcy admitted with a sigh, ‘I kinda like it.’

She heard him chuckle as he pulled her to his chest. ‘Then sleep now, darling. You can feel free to try and violate me again in the morning.’

‘Mmm,’ she murmured, pressing another kiss to his lips, ‘that sounds nice.’

She woke up the next morning once again unbearably warm. Darcy turned to smile at the sight of Loki sleeping peacefully beside her. She hadn’t really studied him the last time they were in this situation.

Darcy had always liked men lean and tall but Loki... He was certainly not muscled like Thor (something Darcy was extremely thankful for) but he had told her last night that he ran when he found the time. You could definitely tell. She ran a hand over his chest muscles, chuckling to herself when he leaned into her touch slightly, still sleeping.

His hair looked ridiculous in the morning, she thought with a snicker. He usually had it slicked back and so to see it rumpled from sleep and starting to curl was very amusing. She wasn’t really surprised it was a mess, though, the amount of tugging she had put it through last night.

He had been such a gentleman, Darcy remembered with a smile. Loki had, in the nicest way possible and with the best intentions, shyly told her that he didn’t expect anything of her even though she was staying in his house. They were getting to know one another as more than simply acquaintances and Darcy was willing to wait too.

That did not, however, mean that she was beyond taking advantage of the fact that he was semi naked and in bed with her. So when the alarm went off (and who set their alarm for seven on a Saturday?) Darcy shut it off before Loki could fully wake up. She straddled his waist and waited for him to wake up fully.

‘Darcy?’

‘You said I could, and I quote, “feel free to try and violate” you this morning.’

The look of utter confusion was adorable, Darcy decided, but his innocent expression was somewhat undermined but the feel of his body under hers. Good morning gorgeous. Darcy wasn’t even aware that the needy whine was hers until it had left her body. She could feel certain parts of his anatomy straining for her attention and she shifted her hips experimentally to see how he would respond.

His reaction was instantaneous. His hips rolled up to meet hers, his hands grasped at her waist with almost bruising intensity and his torso raised off the bed as his lips sought hers. Darcy gasped at the reactions Loki could pull from her. Her skin was on fire, her blood electrified and her heart thudding. His eyes were green fire and Darcy was perfectly willing to lose herself in the flames. His lips left hers and trailed a line of kisses down her throat as Darcy moaned. She could feel him panting against her neck as Loki twisted so that Darcy found herself underneath him, her ankles locked around his waist and her hands clutching at his shoulders. The dull throb she felt intensified as he pushed himself closer to her again, only the thin layers of material separating…

BUZZ.

What the…?

‘And I wish I was James Bond, just for the day. / Kissing all the girls, blow the bad guys away…’

There was a moment of embarrassment as Loki scrambled so quickly to get away from Darcy that he nearly ended up on his ass on the floor. Instead he managed to perch himself on the edge of the bed and answered the phone with a sheepish ‘hello’.

Darcy would have to ask him later about his ringtone but she was far too stunned at what had just happened to pay much attention to his conversation. Instead she alternated between staring daggers at the phone and feeling a little insecure herself. After all, he had launched himself across the bed to get his cell. Mobile, she noted in her head, Loki calls it a mobile.

When he ended the call not thirty seconds later Loki shot Darcy an apologetic look. ‘I’m so, so sorry. I had completely forgotten that a good friend was in the country and had promised to call by today. He’s waiting outside the front door.’

He looked so pathetic that Darcy found herself agreeing to let this ‘friend’ join them for the day. After all, Loki had made plans with him before Darcy had appeared in England. She would just have to suck it up and deal. Plastering a fake smile on her face she excused herself to take a shower, but not before Loki planted a fond kiss on her forehead. His smile showed his gratitude to her and Darcy vowed to be nice to this guy, whoever he was. Loki didn’t seem to have a lot of friends and this one was obviously close to him.

As it happened that wasn’t a problem. Clint Barton was one of the coolest people Darcy had ever met. When she asked him about his job Clint joked about being a pawn of the government (Loki had later told her the truth and explained the meaning behind his ringtone) but apart from that Darcy found him to be quite similar to her both in temperament and in sense of humour. He was American by birth and had met Loki when they were both in high school together. As such he had no problems tagging along with Darcy and Loki on their planned sightseeing trip around the town. He had left in the evening, having only flown over to Britain for his friend’s birthday. Loki had offered him a room for the night but Clint’s raised eyebrow and the way his eyes swept over Darcy as if he were assessing her made the reasons for his reluctance clear.

On Sunday they spent the day indoors (damn English weather) but Darcy found that she didn’t really mind all that much. Their attempts to watch a film had ended with the realisation that each found the other much too distracting to pay any attention to the television. That night Loki took her out to one of the restaurants in town. It was their first ‘real’ date and long overdue.

The rest of the week was spent listening to Loki’s lectures and grabbing lunch in between classes. He apologised time and again for ‘boring’ her but Darcy found the whole thing fascinating. She loved watching him teach. He was full of such enthusiasm and life and…

Damn he was sexy.

Darcy found great amusement in watching the jealous reactions of some of his female students when he sent one of his larger classes off five minutes early one afternoon. She had even heard some of the girls speculating about who his American girlfriend was as they passed her.

Their nights were spent wrapped up in each other and, despite the fact that they had hit it off immediately, Darcy really wanted to hate Clint Barton. Just a little bit. Loki had been overly cautious with her since Clint’s call had interrupted them that first morning. She wondered exactly how he knew when she was at the point of no return as far as being able to stop was concerned but Darcy always found herself simultaneously disappointed and relieved when he put some pace between them. The first time he had done so he must have been reading the emotions on her face. Loki had caressed her cheek and whispered to her in a harsh voice filled with promise. ‘I promise you, darling, when we’re finally ready for all this it will be well worth the wait.’ She knew that he was right, that it would make both of them even more miserable for the next six months or so that they had to spend apart, but still…

On Thursday evening, the evening before she was due to leave, Darcy checked her email and found that Thor had sent some news, along with the pictures she had taken on his phone the night he and Jane became engaged. She had shown them to Loki as they were wrapped up together on the couch after dinner.

‘Do you ever think about it?’ she asked, scrutinising his reaction. ‘Wife, kids, white picket fence and the whole shebang?’

He pulled her closer and Darcy melted into his embrace when he whispered into her hair, ‘I do now.’

She wanted to tease him for saying ‘I do’, but Loki held her back and looked at her with a grave expression. ‘Is that where you see us heading, Darcy? Because that’s what I want, someday.’

Pulling his lips down for a quick kiss Darcy answered in her own serious tone. ‘Of course I do…’

‘I sense a “but”,’ Loki said, his eyes raking over her face nervously.

‘I love you,’ she reassured him, ‘but this is all so crazy! I mean, we’ve only really been together for a few days and I’m already thinking about a future with you and…’

‘Darcy, breathe!’

He sounded alarmed. Whoops. ‘It’s just…’ she trailed off, knowing that he could probably see the fear in her eyes as well as the excitement. ‘It’s all a bit overwhelming. But I’m happy,’ she rushed to add, ‘happier than I’ve been in a long time.’

‘You’re worried that we’re moving too fast,’ Loki said, his voice almost a whisper.

Darcy sighed. Why did she ever open her mouth? But she had a feeling that they needed this conversation. ‘Yes and no. I just… I’m more worried about what happens when I go home tomorrow. This has all been too good to be true and now…’

To her great surprise Loki laughed. ‘Oh, Darcy. Is that what all this has been about? I promise you, this isn’t the end for us.’

How was it that he was able to put into words what Darcy hadn’t even realised herself? He was right, of course, it all came down to the time she had spent with Loki had been as near to perfect as she could have ever imagined and now she had to leave, to go home. After all, she now knew that she had a scholarship waiting for her. Thor had told her in his email but she had yet to mention it to Loki. To be honest, if he asked her to leave it and join him in England permanently Darcy would probably agree. She idly wondered if that was healthy at this stage but was spared the consideration by his next sentences.

‘I applied for a job at your college. Just to see if there were any available. They have one opening up in December.’ He looked a little unsure of himself, but Darcy was so busy being shocked that she found herself incapable of reassuring him. ‘I’m not saying this to put any kind of pressure on you, Darcy. But the option is there, I could take the job and live in the States.’

‘But,’ she stuttered, finding her voice again, ‘this is your home!’

‘You are my home,’ he corrected her gently, his hand caressing her cheek. Darcy leaned into his touch, his words reassuring and thrilling at the same time. ‘I knew that after spending only seven days with you. When I was boarding that plane I knew that I was running away from everything I ever wanted and everything I needed.’ Darcy noticed that the longer he talked the more confident he became. ‘Is that really your only concern? What I would be leaving?’

She thought it over briefly. ‘Well, that and the fact that I would have to wait until December to see you again.’

His answering smile was completely disarming. Darcy laughed as Loki pulled her to him in a tight embrace. ‘You always manage to surprise me, Darcy Lewis.’ He placed a gentle kiss to her smiling lips. ‘Does that mean that you’re alright with me moving closer to you?’

‘Yes,’ she said, without hesitation this time. ‘I guess it’s a good thing, a temporarily long distance relationship or whatever it is.’

Loki seemed to understand. ‘Thank you.’

Darcy raised an eyebrow. ‘For what?’

His smile never wavered as he leaned closer to her, his breath Darcy’s own lips as he answered. ‘Everything.’


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – This is Home

Loki

Dear Darcy,

I hope you’re settling into your new research vein. The last time we spoke it sounded like you were -

He sighed. Delete.

Dear Darcy,

Class was absolute pandemonium today. Apparently there was some sort of problem with the online reading for my class and so -

Loki hit delete again until he had a blank screen.

My darling Darcy,

Why is it so hard to not sound ridiculous writing these emails? I almost feel like –

‘Why the bloody hell can’t I do this?’ He muttered to himself.

‘Performance issues?’ a voice said glibly from over his shoulder. ‘It happens. You know one out of every five...’

Loki threw a scowl at Clint. ‘Give over, Barton.’

The other man simply shrugged and went back to his book. To be honest Loki didn’t even know what he was doing here. He had turned up unannounced four months after the visit on Loki’s birthday and announced that he was staying for a few days. That was all well and good with Loki, Clint knew he had a standing invitation to stay in the spare bedroom, but it made him wonder what it was Barton actually did. It wasn’t the first time he had considered the question but all Loki knew of his childhood friend’s occupation was the he worked ‘for the government’ and that he ‘wasn’t at liberty to say’. Whatever he did, Clint had managed to pull some strings get Loki’s belongings transported ahead of them. He was clearly higher up the ladder of espionage than he would have Loki believe most of the time, claiming that he was a low-grade surveillance expert. Maybe it was better Loki didn’t ask again.

Of course, it had been helpful to have Clint there to help Loki pack up his belongings.

‘You’re just being a woman because your woman is thousands of miles away and you have the biggest case of blue ba…’

Clint chuckled as Loki nudged him in the ribs, his facing turning an interesting shade of maroon. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his laptop.

Darcy,

I love you. I miss you. I can’t wait to see you.

Loki

It was short and honest, but it wasn’t an adequate description of how he was feeling at that second. He kept checking the board on the wall, anxious for it to display his flight number as ‘boarding’. He had agreed to travel back with Clint but the man was irritating him to no end. It wasn’t enough that Loki was already stressed out about finding a place to live, his new job and the permanent move closer to his family, Clint had to give him a good ribbing about his relationship with Darcy too.

And yes, he should be grateful to Barton for using his ‘super-secret-agent skills’ (as Darcy had dubbed them) and even for buying Loki’s house in Bath off him. Loki had no idea why he had bought it but Clint claimed that he needed somewhere outside of the United States as a ‘holiday home’ and that he loved Loki’s house. He didn’t really know whether to believe that or not. But all that didn’t mean that Clint wasn’t grating on his last nerve.

Even when they (finally) boarded the plane Clint was insistent on talking rather than letting Loki get the sleep he had been expecting.

His tone, however, was slightly softer than it had been thus far. ‘You must really love her.’

He sounded almost wistful, Loki realised. ‘Very much.’

‘I wish I could find someone like that,’ Clint revealed, looking out of the small window instead of at his friend. ‘Someone you just want to drop everything and run to.’

Loki snorted quietly. ‘I’ve hardly “dropped everything”. After all we did grow up just a few hours from where Darcy is now.’

‘Yeah,’ Clint said absently, ‘but you’ve found her, the One or whatever cheesy shit you pass it off as. I’m thirty-one and I haven’t found a woman like that yet.’ Loki wanted to tell Clint that he had been in the same boat not that long ago but his friend redirected the conversation before he had the chance, asking Loki to tell him about where he planned to live.

‘Thor and Jane found a detached house on the outskirts of town that I’m going to see. Apparently it’s very English looking, red brick, classic fireplace. I had a look at some pictures on the internet, it looked nice.’ He didn’t mention that Darcy had looked at the pictures too. She had loved it and that was Loki’s main motivation for going to look at it. After all he hoped that sometime in the future they would be sharing it. While Loki understood that it was more common in the States he had never been one for apartments and renting. He wanted somewhere that had the potential to (one day) be a family home. Somewhere that was his, and maybe one day it would be theirs.

They didn’t talk much after that and Loki was finally able to fall asleep once Clint had decided that he would rather flirt with the blonde two rows in front of them than continue to irritate him. When he woke again it was to his friend shaking his shoulder and telling him that they had arrived.

The panic set in again when they had to get off the plane.

Walking through the terminal Loki had to chuckle at the amount of female attention Clint gathered with his sunglasses and his muscle revealing shirt. He had to be aware of it but he ignored all curious eyes as he hefted first his own case and then Loki’s off the conveyer belt.

Loki took his case silently, ignoring Clint’s teasing plea for him to ‘chill’. He was calm. He was totally calm. He was a quiet lake on a windless day. He was…

Why were his parents here? He hadn’t told them he was arriving today. And yet there they stood, beside a smiling Thor and a slightly nervous looking Jane. It was good to see them nonetheless.

But where was Darcy? She was noticeably missing from the little group waving (in Thor’s case so frantically that he almost knocked over a woman trying to get past his bulk) over to him. Had she had second thoughts about this, about him? He didn’t think he could be here is that was the case. Did she regret agreeing to his plan to move closer to her? Was four months apart enough time for her to forget how much he loved her? How much she professed to love him?

It felt like the bottom had fallen out of his stomach. Had she really loved him in the first place? Is that why Jane looked so anxious to see him? Did she not want to be the bearer of bad news, that Darcy didn’t want him anymore and possibly never had?

No, he told himself sternly, Darcy loved him. She had been held late in a meeting with her adviser, or had got caught up at the library, or… something. She wouldn’t just leave him like this, would she?

Before his imagination could run away with him even more (if that was humanly possible), Clint shook Loki’s shoulder and pointed through the crowd.

She hadn’t yet managed to locate them and her eyes were still scanning the crowd. She was the most beautiful woman Loki had ever seen, with her dark curls bouncing off her cheeks as she walked, her nose wrinkled in annoyance as someone cut her off. She was wearing a bright purple that made her instantly noticeable among the business suits of the crowd around her. But the most amazing thing about her was the smile that lit her face when their eyes met.

Loki just about managed to relinquish his grip on his case and catch her as Darcy flew into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her mouth was on his before he had time to say anything and he stumbled back a pace at the sheer ferocity of her actions.

How had he allowed himself to doubt that she loved him? He would not do so again.

She had missed him, that much was obvious. The way she clung to him as if she wanted to sink into his very skin was reassuring that their time apart had been as miserable for Darcy as it had been for him. 

She was everything he remember and more. Her hair was richer, her eyes brighter. And the way she smelt… It was like everything he loved about her was made so much… not better but certainly more intense. Though Loki never planned on being away from her for that length of time again he did have to concede that it had its advantages. On his part, absence really did make the heart grow fonder. Not matter how much he hated it at the time.

He could feel the warmth of her skin seeping through her top. The week he had spent sleeping next to her had been like sleeping next to a human radiator. To feel that same sensation now was comforting and familiar.

And the way she made him feel… like a blushing schoolboy and a powerful man all at once. She brought out reactions in him that he had never even thought possible. The extent to which he wanted her was getting ridiculous. It had been a trial in patience to be separated from her for this long. But there was time for that later, he reasoned with himself, even as he continued to nip at her lips with his teeth. He had suddenly come to the realisation that they were, in fact, still in the middle of the airport and probably garnering quite a lot of stares with their behaviour.

But after kissing him as passionately as Loki could imagine she was able to do in her position Darcy pulled her face away slightly and looked up into his eyes. ‘Hi.’

He laughed and buried his face in her hair as she maintained her deathgrip on his neck. ‘Hello, Darcy.’

He couldn’t bring himself to care that his parents had just seen her display, that Thor and Jane were probably mortified by Darcy’s actions or that Clint’s smirk could be seen from the landing planes. All that mattered was the woman in his arms and the way he felt about her. Gently, he placed her feet back on the ground, placing a chaste kiss to her lips as he did so.

She looked at him as if he was the most important thing in her world. And, as he took her hand in the airport, he felt as though he just might be. Darcy intertwined her fingers with his and said the six words that both sent his heart racing and calmed any remaining nerves that he might have had.

‘I love you, Loki. Welcome home.’

The End


End file.
